MINSK, 24 February (BelTA) - The disarmament agenda is of paramount importance to the entire international community, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said as he addressed the high-level segment of the Conference on Disarmament, BelTA has learned.
“It is important to understand that in the face of the security crisis, turbulence and growing contradictions among key world players, the disarmament agenda is gaining a paramount importance for the entire international community," he said.
He believes that the disregard for the international disarmament and arms control agreements breeds mistrust, creates threats of military confrontation and the preconditions for conflict.
Vladimir Makei called the extension of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty by Russia and the United States as an important step towards overcoming the negative trends. “We hope that this will lay a solid foundation for strengthening the existing arms control and disarmament mechanisms and also for the development of new arrangements,” the minister stressed.
Belarus is ready to engage in substantive and constructive work in this direction, Vladimir Makei said. "Our proposal to resume international dialogue to overcome the military and political tensions and restore trust is a proof of this," the foreign minister continued. “To this end, we have put forward the initiatives to develop a multilateral political declaration on the non-deployment of medium- and short-range missiles to fill the legal void created in the wake of the termination of the Intermediate-Range Missile Treaty and to establish a digital neighborhood belt to reduce the risks of confrontation in cyberspace.”
