EU foreign ministers on Friday in Berlinproposed imposing sanctions against Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko but also to send €53 million in aid to the country, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman said.

Grlic-Radman participated in an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers who discussed the situation in Belarus and the EU’s relations with Turkey and Russia.

The ministers condemned the “violence and repression” in Belarus, said Grlic-Radman.

“We have proposed sanctions to the European Council which should send the message that elections can be won only by democratic forces. The EU has also decided to send aid amounting to €53 million, first and foremost for democratic forces and, in part, for the fight against Covid-19.”

Grlic-Radman said the ministers expressed solidarity with their colleagues in Greece and Cyprus because of their tensions with Turkey.

“We gave Turkey room for diplomatic dialogue given the fact that Turkey is a geopolitically strong country, our partner, an EU candidate and a NATO member, but in any case, illegal exploration in the eastern Mediterranean cannot be tolerated.”

Speaking of EU-Russia relations, Grlic-Radman said the ministers “expressed hope in a transparent investigation” into the possible poisoning of Alexei Navalny, a critic of the Kremlin who is in an induced coma in a Berlin hospital.