MINSK, 24 June (BelTA) – Belarus is ready to discuss security at the border with Poland. Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Aleinik made the statement after negotiations with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, BelTA has learned.
Sergei Aleinik stressed that the latest statements by the Polish minister of foreign affairs are completely in discord with the statements Poland made several weeks ago when it was suggesting to open additional border crossings. “But unfortunately it is today’s political reality,” he remarked.
“It is necessary to clearly understand that these appeals and these proposals are not aimed not only and not entirely at Polish citizens and Polish regions, economic development of Polish regions but at citizens of other countries of the European Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the so-called Greater Eurasia,” Sergei Aleinik added. “This is why we need to clearly understand that migration streams in no way depend on this kind of decisions.”
He explained that now migrants use illegal ways to cross the border instead of legal border crossings. “And they flee from the countries where even Poland participated in combat operations not so long ago,” Sergei Aleinik said.
“This is why dialogue is the only way towards de-escalation. If Poland is ready for it, at least for dialogue about cooperation in the border area, cooperation that has been curtailed upon the initiative of the Polish side and other European partners, then we are ready to discuss these topics. But, without a doubt, on an equal and mutually respectful basis,” the minister of foreign affairs concluded.
In turn, Sergey Lavrov noted that actions of many Western leaders, including Polish politicians, lack any kind of consistency. “When they switch from one extreme option to another, I can explain it only by the fact that they do not abide by basic interests of their own nation, the Polish nation in this case but by their domestic political agenda on the eve of yet another election (or past one). We are accustomed to that and fully take into account this lack of consistency and this unreliability of our European neighbors as we make foreign policy plans together with Belarusian allies,” the Russian minister of foreign affairs said.
