Macron: discussed Belarus border situation with Poland, must keep pressure on Lukashenko

French President Emmanuel Macron discussed on Thursday the Belarus border situation with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and added Europe had to keep up pressure on Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.

French President Emmanuel Macron discussed on Thursday the Belarus border situation with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and added Europe had to keep up pressure on Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko. Belarus authorities on Thursday cleared the main camps where migrants had huddled at the border with Poland, in a change of tack that could cool a crisis that has spiralled in recent weeks into a major East-West confrontation.

The European Commission and Germany rejected a proposal by Belarus that European Union countries take in 2,000 of the migrants currently on its territory, however, and the United States accused Minsk of making migrants "pawns in its efforts to be disruptive", signalling the tensions with the West were far from over. Thousands of migrants had been trapped in freezing woods at the border.

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