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The United States' policy regarding Belarus will not change significantly following the election of Barack Obama as US president, Belarusian political expert Vital Silitski projected.

"One should remember that the Belarus Democracy Act, adopted in 2004, was lobbied for by two senators – John McCain and Joe Biden, who was named a US vice president," Mr. Silitski said.

"Obama and McCain share approaches to Belarus, that is why no changes will be made to the US policy regarding Belarus at least at the initial stage," he said. "Enterprises were trading with the USA under Bush and, I think, they will continue doing that under Obama. Obama did not make any statements about Belarus, but those by Joe Biden are quite sufficient."

The political expert said that Mr. Obama enjoyed popularity among Europeans but noted that Europeans traditionally supported Democratic rather than Republican candidates.

"As for the coordination of the policy of the EU and the USA regarding Belarus, it is coordinated quite well now," he said.

Syarhey Maskevich, chairman of the Belarusian House of Representatives' standing committee on international affairs and relations within the CIS, told BelaPAN that he hoped that the administration of the new US president would "understand more our path of development."

"The matter will clarify during the next year, but I have positive expectations," Mr. Maskevich said.

The Belarusian lawmaker noted that the new US government would seek to strengthen their country's leadership in the world "not by war, but by economic solutions and efforts to harmonize relations in international politics."