Recognition of breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia will create “a very difficult situation” for Belarus, Czech Foreign Minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, who holds the EU’s rotating presidency said on February 23.

Speaking after meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, which discussed Eastern Partnership initiative, Schwarzenberg said: “It is natural that Belarus [has] a sovereign parliament and the parliament of Belarus has its own decision [to make],” he said. "If they recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia it would create a very, very difficult situation for Belarus because Belarus would be out of the European consensus.”