MINSK, 28 June (BelTA) – The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released a statement in response to the report adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on 27 June to describe the situation in Belarus, BelTA has learned.
According to the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the report prepared by the Italian MP Andrea Rigoni to describe the situation and Belarus for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has been thoroughly perused by the ministry. The statement by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reads: “We welcome PACE's decision to continue working and maintaining high-level contacts with the Belarusian government. The step opens up opportunities for discussing mutual concerns between the Belarusian parliament and PACE. The step removes the artificial barrier to the advancement of relations with Belarus that was created by certain short-sighted politicians back in 2011. Unfortunately, PACE has been unable to fully reject false stereotypes and outdated approaches so far. A number of the report's provisions we cannot recognize as objective testify to that.”
Representatives of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regret the fact that Lithuania's amendment to the report on the Belarusian nuclear power plant has been passed despite valid objections raised by a number of MPs, who noted the topic had nothing to do with the issue at hand and the overall work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The statement reads: “We are forced to observe that instead of talking to Belarus via a bilateral dialogue and working with us within the framework of specialized international organizations, primarily the IAEA, Lithuania continues the policy of bringing politics into the matter by using international forums totally unrelated to nuclear power engineering for its unconstructive goals. We would not be surprised if tomorrow the issue of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will surface on the agenda of the International Draughts Federation.”
The report contains a number of appeals to Belarus. Representatives of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by saying that these matters are already discussed within the framework of the dialogues on human rights between Belarus and its Western partners.
The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pleased with the fact that a majority of PACE members have spoken in favor of regularly inviting Belarusian MPs to attend sessions of the PACE Commission on Political Affairs and Democracy.
“We support the PACE appeal for the European Union to consider the possibility of lifting all the existing sanctions from Belarus. We are confident it is necessary to expand constructive cooperation with the Council of Europe and its parliamentary assembly. We believe that the PACE report creates the necessary prerequisites for it despite all its shortcomings,” concluded representatives of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
