MINSK, 1 October (BelTA) – The United States of America has plans to build a new embassy building in Belarus, Belarus Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the RBC information agency. The text of the interview was posted on the website of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, BelTA has learned.
When asked why the decision to restore ambassadors of Belarus and the USA was taken now, the minister said: “There is nothing extraordinary in the fact that our country seeks to have normal and balanced relations with the world's leading nations.”
“It is not normal when relations are damaged in today's world where everything is interconnected. After all, let us be frank, the USA is the world's leader and I believe it will remain so in the nearest decade. We are interested in mending ties with the United States. We would like to quit the confrontation rhetoric that dominated our relations some ten years ago when we initiated the withdrawal of the ambassadors from both countries,” Vladimir Makei said.
The United States is a huge market for Belarus, therefore Belarus would like to build trade and economic ties with the USA. “Taking into consideration the previous years that marked the rapprochement in our relations, the bilateral trade in 2018 exceeded $700 million, up 18%,” the minister informed.
“We are interested in a normal political dialogue with the United States. There are a number of issues we need to come to grips with. For example, the withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. We are trying to understand who is right and who is wrong and to grapple with this situation. Nothing will work without a dialogue, because one party blames the other for violating the provisions of the treaty. I am not going to judge who is right and who is wrong right now, I just want to say that we are interested in a transparent and open dialogue, including with the world's superpowers in order to have a better understanding of one or another situation. This is why we are keen on building comprehensive relations with the United States,” he said.
The parties agreed in principle on the return of ambassadors. However, this will not happen soon. It will be preceded by a number of domestic procedures related to the appointment of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors in the two countries. “The United States has plans to build a new embassy building in Belarus, because they think the existing one does not meet certain security requirements. The security standards were toughened after the notorious terrorist attack in Libya,” Vladimir Makei said.
