Editing Guido Westerwelle (section)

===Relations with Belarus===
In the belief that the European Union had to engage [[Belarus]] to prevent it from moving closer to Russia, Westerwelle – accompanied by his Polish counterpart [[Radek Sikorski]] – visited [[Minsk]] in November 2010, the first such visit in 15 years.<ref>Judy Dempsey (22 December 2010), [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/world/europe/23iht-letter23.html European Engagement With Belarus Takes a Blow] ''[[International Herald Tribune]]''.</ref> Shortly after, Westerwelle publicly condemned the judgments against President [[Alexander Lukashenko]]'s main political opponent [[Andrei Sannikov]] and other opposition supporters.<ref>[http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/05/2011514191719445811.html Lukashenko opponent jailed for five years] ''[[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]]'', 14 May 2011.</ref> As a consequence, Poland, France and Germany pressed their EU partners in to impose tougher sanctions against the Belarusian leadership following the crackdown and trials of opposition leaders in the country who held peaceful protests against the fraudulent [[2010 Belarusian presidential election|presidential elections]].<ref>Judy Dempsey (20 May 2011), [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/world/europe/21iht-poland21.html France Joins Poland and Germany on Wider Unity] ''[[International Herald Tribune]]''.</ref>

In March 2012, Lukashenko criticized EU politicians who threatened him with further sanctions over human rights abuses and in an apparent riposte to Westerwelle branding him "Europe's last dictator," said: "Better to be a dictator than gay."<ref>Lidia Kelly (4 March 2012), [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belarus-dicator-idUSTRE8230T320120304 Belarus's Lukashenko: "Better a dictator than gay"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006194656/http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/04/us-belarus-dicator-idUSTRE8230T320120304 |date=6 October 2015 }} ''[[Reuters]]''.</ref> Westerwelle subsequently responded: "This statement condemns itself. I won't budge one millimeter from my commitment to human rights and democracy in Belarus after these comments."<ref>{{Cite news |date=2012-03-05 |title='Better To Be a Dictator than Gay' : Germany Slams Lukashenko Over Slur |url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/better-to-be-a-dictator-than-gay-germany-slams-lukashenko-over-slur-a-819458.html |access-date=2025-05-10 |work=Der Spiegel |language=en |issn=2195-1349}}</ref>