MINSK, 16 February (BelTA) – Ban on the Belavia air carrier is absolutely groundless and stupid, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said at a press conference in Minsk on 16 February, BelTA has learned.
"We see attempts by Western countries to make ICAO prepare the findings beneficial to them [on the Ryanair incident on 23 May 2021]. We resolutely do not accept this, we work with ICAO members, our partners. Naturally, we will monitor the situation and take steps to get the unreasonable restrictions against our airline lifted. An absolutely groundless, unreasonable, stupid decision," the minister said.
"If ICAO does not reverse the decision, this will mean the politicization of the things that should not be affected. I am referring to the air safety regulations. There should be no politics there, as this is connected with the lives of people, passengers," Vladimir Makei emphasized.
The minister recalled that from the start Belarus would say that the sanctions against Belavia were absolutely unjustified and contradicted all international agreements and documents. "Even then, we were perplexed at the speed with which they imposed sanctions against our airline, literally within a day, although it was Sunday (leaders of European states are usually silent on Sundays). But on this occasion, as if by magic, literally within 40 minutes Western countries offered their reaction to the incident, which had nothing to do with Belavia," the minister said.
Vladimir Makei stressed that Belarus provided all the necessary documents to ICAO and asked the organization to request the relevant documents from the countries involved in the incident - Lithuania, Poland, Ireland. "But, unfortunately, the ICAO report did not give us an answer to the questions we posed. We sent a letter to ICAO with a request to launch an investigation into those countries that imposed unjustified sanctions against Belavia in violation of all international agreements and treaties," the minister said.
