Behind the difference looms the specter of Russia, which each side sees in increasingly opposing terms.

When it comes to relations with Belarus, the Trump administration has been pursuing a dual approach of late.

In May 2026, President Donald Trump renewed the U.S. national emergency on Belarus, noting that the government of longtime Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko still posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. security and foreign policy.

The emergency, which in practice underpins the legal basis for targeted U.S. sanctions on the former Soviet republic, has been in force since June 2006, when President George W. Bush imposed it after a Belarusian election widely seen as undemocratic.