VILNIUS, Lithuania —

The United States says it is lifting sanctions on Belarusian potash in the latest sign of a thaw between Washington and the isolated autocracy.

John Coale, the U.S. special envoy for Belarus, made the announcement after meeting the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Friday and Saturday.

A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced Western isolation and sanctions for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been repeatedly sanctioned by Western countries both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Speaking with journalists, Coale described the two-day talks as “

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