<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">US President Joe Biden met Wednesday with exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya while in Vilnius attending a NATO summit, the White House said.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tikhanovskaya, who claimed victory against Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in 2020 presidential elections, has been in exile in since the aftermath of the disputed vote, and lives in Lithuania.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Biden's meeting with Tikhanovskaya underscored "the continued commitment of the United States to defend and advance human rights, including freedom of expression, and free and fair elections in Belarus," the White House said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Belarus is an authoritarian state in which opposition voices and independent media have been stifled during Lukashenko's nearly three decades in power.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Biden's meeting with Tikhanovskaya comes after Lukashenko last month acted as mediator between Moscow and the Wagner group after its short-lived rebellion against Russia's army, producing a deal under which Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had been supposed to move to Belarus.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, Tikhanovskaya said she had received an anonymous message saying her jailed husband Sergei Tikhanovsky, who she has not heard from since March, was dead.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tikhanovsky had planned to run against Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election but was arrested and detained before the vote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Svetlana, who ran in his place, has been sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>