Modelling a Privileged Partnership: Belarus’s Performative Diplomacy Towards Venezuela (2006–2013)

The article argues that Belarus deployed performative diplomacy towards Venezuela in an attempt to shore up its international self-image during a period of shaky relations with Russia and, to a lesser extent, the West. In a series of meetings between presidents Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Hugo Chávez in the period 2006–2013, ending with the death of Chávez, Belarus modelled the ideal type of privileged partnership it wished to have with Russia. This diplomatic theatre also signalled Belarus’s importance as a global player to its own population, who were uncertain of Belarus’s place in the world.