MINSK, 12 April (BelTA) - The sanctions have turned into open economic aggression, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Aleinik said at the CIS Foreign Ministers Council meeting in Minsk on 12 April, BelTA has learned.
The Belarusian foreign minister said: “The situation in regional economy is also complicated. Sanctions have turned into open economic aggression. They have long ceased to be selective. They talk about it less and instead declare the real goals: to impede economic development and eliminate the competitor, to achieve impoverishment of the population, to provoke discontent and unrest.”
“However, here, their result is not just zero but rather negative,” Sergei Aleinik said. “They sacrificed the interests of their own business and their own people in favor of their political ambitions.”
According to the Belarusian foreign minister, sanctions disrupt logistics, supply chains, provoke crises in food security. “Simply put, they are the cause of hunger and death in many vulnerable countries,” Sergei Aleinik said.
He emphasized the fundamental importance of economic cooperation within the CIS. “It is great to see systematic work in this area: the member states approved the CIS Economic Development Strategy for the period until 2030, are implementing the action plan of the first stage of the strategy (2021-2025), as well as the list of joint measures to respond to emerging problems. There are cooperation councils, a number of working groups, including a high-level working group on the elimination of trade barriers.
The Belarusian foreign minister of Belarus summarized: “Such a systematic approach and the results of work over the past year have proved that difficulties discipline us: the GDP of the CIS countries in 2023 went up by 4% on average in comparison with 2022 where it was minus 0.2%.”
The Belarusian foreign minister said: “The situation in regional economy is also complicated. Sanctions have turned into open economic aggression. They have long ceased to be selective. They talk about it less and instead declare the real goals: to impede economic development and eliminate the competitor, to achieve impoverishment of the population, to provoke discontent and unrest.”
“However, here, their result is not just zero but rather negative,” Sergei Aleinik said. “They sacrificed the interests of their own business and their own people in favor of their political ambitions.”
The minister added: “They do not take into account the fact that sanctions destabilize all trade, economic and financial processes not only in our region, but also across the globe.”
According to the Belarusian foreign minister, sanctions disrupt logistics, supply chains, provoke crises in food security. “Simply put, they are the cause of hunger and death in many vulnerable countries,” Sergei Aleinik said.
He emphasized the fundamental importance of economic cooperation within the CIS. “It is great to see systematic work in this area: the member states approved the CIS Economic Development Strategy for the period until 2030, are implementing the action plan of the first stage of the strategy (2021-2025), as well as the list of joint measures to respond to emerging problems. There are cooperation councils, a number of working groups, including a high-level working group on the elimination of trade barriers.
The Belarusian foreign minister of Belarus summarized: “Such a systematic approach and the results of work over the past year have proved that difficulties discipline us: the GDP of the CIS countries in 2023 went up by 4% on average in comparison with 2022 where it was minus 0.2%.”
