MINSK, 11 August (BelTA) - Belarus has withdrawn its agrément for U.S. Ambassador to Belarus Julie Fisher. The United States was also asked to reduce its embassy staff in Minsk to five people by 1 September, BelTA learned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus.
Journalists asked whether any action has been taken in response to another round of restrictions imposed by the United States against Belarus.
"Yes, of course. But there are certain ethic standards in diplomacy, and we will not make all our steps public. Today we summoned U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Ruben Harutyunyan to communicate him the information about Belarus' measures in response to the unfriendly and even aggressive actions of the United States," spokesman for the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Glaz said.
He noted that in recent years two countries have done a lot of work to mend diplomatic ties. "Therefore, it is a pity that the brazen and openly hostile actions of the United States and some of its individual representatives, that hardly fit the concept of diplomacy and professionalism, have eroded the gains achieved by their predecessors and forced us to withdraw the previously issued agrément for U.S. Ambassador-Designate to Belarus Julie Fisher," Anatoly Glaz said.
In his words, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is very clear and specific about such situations, so there should not be any misunderstanding. “Yet, if necessary, we will offer explanations. Amidst Washington's actions to downscale cooperation in all areas, taking into consideration economic strangulation of our country, we see no objective reasons for such a significant diplomatic presence of the United States in Belarus. It is simply unclear what they are going to do here against such a background. In this regard, the U.S side was asked to reduce the embassy staff to five people by 1 September. Actually, we will stick to this clear logic if the United States of America continues to scale down bilateral cooperation,” Anatoly Glaz said.
“Given the loss of trust in the current U.S. administration, Belarus will suspend the approval procedures for all new projects, grants and programs of the U.S. government until this trust is rebuilt. Based on the results of the ongoing study, we reserve the right to take additional countermeasures. I would like to emphasize once again that even in the current situation Belarus is ready for dialogue and will revise a number of its retaliatory measures if Washington brings its policy towards Belarus back to a constructive track. By the way, this is truly in the best interests of both Belarusians and Americans,” the spokesman said.
