MINSK, 13 October (BelTA) – Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei does not exclude that in the future Belarus may consider the possibility of full participation in the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), given the fact that the transformation of this forum into a full-fledged international organization is under discussion, BelTA has learned.
According to the minister, the CICA platform is important for discussing security issues in the first place. “We can say that today there are many regional organizations, which are in the Eurasian space and in one way or another cover the issues of military and political, trade and economic, humanitarian cooperation and so on,” said Vladimir Makei.
He recalled that CICA was established in 1992 as a forum, but now Kazakhstan is promoting the idea of transforming it into a genuine international organization. “We will then consider the possibility of our full participation in the organization,” the minister said.
Vladimir Makei added that at its recent summit the SCO started the procedure of Belarus' accession to the organization. “We have to go through a certain stage. We are not going to focus on many areas right now. We will concentrate on the organizations that are of priority importance to us. In particular, the SCO is of great interest to us now, because we have long been actively cooperating with it in various areas that are beneficial to us. This is especially true in the period of sanctions confrontation. Therefore, the SCO is a priority. We, however, do not exclude our active participation in those organizations that are interesting for us first of all from the point of view of economics, politics, and humanitarian cooperation,” the Belarusian minister of foreign affairs said.
He was also asked whether, under current conditions, international platforms such as the CICA or the SCO, where there is no pressure or politicization, are more effective than the OSCE or even the UN. “I would not compare the level of effectiveness of various regional and universal organizations right now. Each organization has its own sphere of competence, its own focus. Of course, the UN is a universal organization, which should be responsible for issues of peace and security in the world. We have to say frankly that now, unfortunately, it lags behind the dynamics of processes and fails to cope with the functions vested with it,” the minister said.
The SCO was created primarily to strengthen the trade and economic cooperation between the Eurasian countries, Vladimir Makei said.
“Each organization is important in its own way. Once again I would like to note that we are interested in the maximum involvement in the work of those universal and regional organizations that will benefit Belarus. If we see that it gives us dividends, then of course we will actively participate,” the Belarusian minister of foreign affairs concluded.
