MINSK, 27 April (BelTA) - International organizations are turning from platforms for dialogue into tools for pressure, the head of the Belarusian delegation, director of the Tourism Department at the Sport and Tourism Ministry Irina Voronovich said at an extraordinary session of the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), BelTA has learned.
"This is the first time in the history of the UNWTO that the reasons not directly related to the activities of a member country in the UNWTO are cited as grounds for suspending its membership. International organizations that were set up as platforms for dialogue and exchange of views, even contrary views, are now turning into an instrument of exerting pressure on a country and actually excluding it from this dialogue," Irina Voronovich said.
According to her, such steps are disturbing the entire system of international cooperation based on the UN Charter and will have long-term negative consequences up to the collapse of the entire UN system.
"Today's statement by Russia about its withdrawal from the UNWTO makes this agenda item irrelevant. Belarus opposes the creation of a committee to suspend Russia's membership in the UNWTO," the head of the Belarusian delegation said.
