Washington, 6 March 1997 (RFE/RL) - State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns says the United States and Belarus cannot have normal relations while "there is so much that divides the two countries."
At a briefing in Washington yesterday for foreign journalists, Burns said the United States has not seen the same sort of commitment to democracy from President Alyaksandr Lukashenka that it has witnessed elsewhere in the region.
He says the United States has been very disappointed in its relationship with Belarus under President Lukashenka.