MINSK, 6 December (BelTA) – Belarus is facing a risk of losing its statehood if the sanctions keep piling up, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the Belarus 1 TV channel following the recent OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Stockholm, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The foreign minister emphasized that in the end no one will benefit from the sanctions and his sensible foreign counterparts are aware of it. “Belarus may lose its statehood if the sanctions continue, although we will do everything to prevent this from happening. Yet, if it happens, the European Union will lose Belarus forever. And I think that this is absolutely not in Europe's interests,” he said.
“There is a certain understanding of this, but, unfortunately, due to established behavior patterns, this situation is discussed there behind the scenes because of the fear of being criticized by the public or the so-called free media of their countries,” added Vladimir Makei.
The minister said that he could not understand the logic of the self-exiled opponents of the authorities: “They call for increasing pressure on the country, on its people, for expanding sanctions and at the same time they wait for the country to collapse, to fall into ruins, and they feel gratified when another package of sanctions is passed.”
“Even true hardened opposition figure such as Zenon Pozniak has already spoken out on this topic many times and said that those people who are now calling for sanctions against their people are not only just stupid, they are idiots. He concluded that Belarus may really lose sovereignty, independence and statehood as a result," the minister said. "I absolutely agree with the opinion of Zenon Pozniak and also place the blame with the people who are calling for sanctions today."
Vladimir Makei noted with regret that today the European partners listen to one-sided information from these so-called reliable sources and take the steps aimed at actually destroying the sovereignty and independence of Belarus.
"Diplomacy in the traditional sense of the word has ceased to exist today, and that is the problem. Diplomacy should bring peoples and states closer together, but today, which is surprising, my colleagues are afraid to engage in true diplomacy. Today, we are facing information and economic attacks, but, thank God, they are not yet military. Let's hope it will not come to this," the Belarusian minister said.
He stressed that today's European diplomacy is absolutely different from traditional diplomacy. “We should ‘thank' first of all the Belarusian self-exiled opposition and those who listen to them. Many of my counterparts told me that the Swedish OSCE presidency had acted somewhat dishonestly. The president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly - a representative of Sweden – allegedly by accident invited the madam we all know about to a number of events on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council. This was done to promote certain people, of course. A number of my counterparts told me that she had been trying to contact them asking for meetings. Some of them agreed, some refused, and I know those who said no. The goal is clear, i.e. to show their importance by posing together for photographers,” the minister said.
The minister expressed his deep conviction, with which, he said, very many of the European partners agree, that people, who call for sanctions against their people and against their state, would never be supported by this state and would never be accepted in this state. “I am deeply convinced that these people from the past have no political future in Belarus,” the minister said.
