The president of the United States, donald trumpannounced this Sunday the nomination of the lawyer John Coale as special envoy for Belarus with the double mission of continuing to build closer relations with the country’s president and great ally of Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko, and continuing with negotiations for the release of “political prisoners”, or hostages, as they have been described by President Trump.
Coale, in fact, and as confirmed by Trump, has been talking with Belarusian authorities about the release of another 50 hostages.
“I would like to thank in advance the highly respected President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, for his consideration regarding the release of these additional individuals,” Trump added in statements made through his platform, Truth Social.
Coale, 78, is a lawyer known for having helped negotiate the large 380 billion euro agreement agreed with the tobacco industry in the late 1990s and, as he has acknowledged in several interviews, he began his working life very close to prominent Democratic Party politicians before moving to the Republican ranks.
During the last two months, Coale has made several trips to Belarus and conveyed to the great ally of the Russian president Trump’s interest in “normalizing” bilateral relations between the United States and Belarus, for which Washington has offered to withdraw the sanctions imposed on the state airline Belavia and reopen the embassy.
