MINSK, 6 July (BelTA) – Belarus will have to redirect some funds from the accomplishment and maintenance of the border infrastructure to efforts meant to neutralize the possible consequences of Western sanctions, BelTA learned from Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei.
Belarus has already begun suspending the Belarus-EU readmission agreement. Vladimir Makei noted it had been an important agreement for both sides. “But since after last year's events the European Union has taken a number of steps and has stopped financing specific projects within the framework of this agreement, there is no sense for us to be party to this agreement. We will redirect the money we intended to spend on the border infrastructure, on implementing some other mobility-related projects towards alleviating the consequences Belarus may face due to the sanctions. In other words, this money will be spent on specific persons, on the people,” the official said. “Why do we have to stop some fleeing migrants, who want to reach the West in search of a better life only because some well-known countries decided to stage color revolutions in the migrants' own countries in the past?”
“We are not going to take money away from people and spend it on useless projects in a bid to protect the West while the West enforces sanctions against us,” Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei stressed.
Asked about the content and the length of the readmission agreement suspension procedure, Vladimir Makei explained: “We are talking about purely procedural things. In the past when we were signing the agreements on facilitating visa regulations and on readmission with the European Union, these agreements were signed as a package. They had to be ratified by the parliament and approved by the head of state. This is why we have to submit a bill from the Internal Affairs Ministry on suspending the agreement to the parliament.”
Asked when the final decision will be made, Vladimir Makei said he was confident it will happen soon. “The process is already launched. Interagency approval procedures are in progress. The matter was also mentioned at the government conference hosted by the head of state today. I think the decision will be made soon. There is an absolute approval of the step,” the official said.
Asked whether Belarus leaves its options open by suspending the agreement instead of terminating it in case the relations get back to normal, Vladimir Makei said: “We always keep options open primarily for our Western partners. We believe that the scorched earth policy is not the way to go. Destroying everything like European partners do is not a good idea. We've always been intent on calm and constructive relations. We are interested in getting issues resolved without conflicts by diplomatic means instead of the ways our partners are trying to accomplish it today.”
