Belarus Foreign Ministry sums up results of its activity in 2021

Belarus has been chosen for exemplary punishment, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said at a press conference in Minsk on 16 February, as he spoke about the sanctions and pressure from the West.

Talking about the year 2021, the minister said that Belarus had to spend most of the time and energy in the foreign political dimension to deal with the challenges and threats that directly affected the national interests. “We had to defend the sovereignty and independence of Belarus in the truest sense of the word,” he said.

According to the minister, the West has intensified its sanctions and does not even hide its goals. The West seeks to destabilize the social and political situation in the country, strangle its economy and deteriorate living standards for as many people as possible to force them make an attempt to overthrow the government. No one thinks what will happen next. “In today's geopolitical context, the achievement of certain priorities is very important, if not vital, for the European Union. The West has chosen Belarus as a country to be punished exemplarily in order to demonstrate its strength and geopolitical clout and teach others a lesson,” said Vladimir Makei. In his words, for some reason Brussels believes that if it fails the Belarusian case it will lose face. So it is willing to sacrifice the long-term interests of both the Europeans and the Belarusians. “It is already clear that these attempts have failed and these goals will never be achieved,” the minister stressed.

Moreover, in many respects, this pressure has helped Belarusian enterprises to become more mobile, flexible and to diversify and increase their exports. "We have allies, partners, national interests, and we will not allow Belarus to be treated without respect," Vladimir Makei said.

Belarus has come under the unprecedented pressure in the media as well. "Opponents did not shy away from anything," the minister said. This phenomenon was dubbed as "information terrorism" by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "Disinformation and speculations are used as a formal reason for demonizing our country, imposing illegal restrictive measures against it," the minister said and cited several illustrative examples: the incident with the Rynair aircraft (the recent ICAO report cites not objective data for whipping up the hysteria against Belarus), the migrant crisis on the border or the Union State exercises Zapad 2021, which was also described by some destructive forces as a possible invasion threat to one of the neighboring countries.

Belarus is an open country and was ready to invite the same observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. But the ODIHR clearly communicated to Minsk: they are not going to participate in monitoring. They are afraid of spoiling their image.

The minister outlined deep problems within the organization that significantly affect its reputation: “The problem lies in the ODIHR itself. If Western countries stick to the same policy towards the OSCE/ODIHR, it will soon lose its significance.” For example, it has been proposed many times to come up with uniform criteria for monitoring elections and referendums for all countries. “In fact, we do not understand it when the ODIHR sends 400-600 observers to some states, and four to others. As a result, some countries, including Belarus and Russia, stopped inviting this organization to monitor their elections. We see that final reports on electoral campaigns are compiled in advance, they are highly politicized. There is no point in inviting such structures if you already know what they will say,” Vladimir Makei is convinced.

He believes that the OSCE/ODIHR shoulddraw conclusions from this situation, otherwise the number of elections they are invited to will decrease.

Over the last year, Belarus had to build its foreign policy under the new conditions. Considerable efforts were forced to devote not to creation, but to confrontation with external challenges.

International crises, from humanitarian catastrophe of refugees on the eastern borders of the EU to the information hysteria around Ukraine, happen because of the actions of Western politicians, not professional at all, but image-driven. Instability and infantilism rule the world. Belarus categorically rejects this policy.

Belarus resolutely opposes NATO expansion, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said.

"As for our stance on the expansion of NATO, it is well known. It has remained unchanged since the early 1990s. We have always been resolutely against the expansion of NATO. We believe that the promises that were once made to Gorbachev have been broken by our Western partners. As a result, we have a situation where no one trusts anyone, when the world is divided into ‘us' and ‘not us' and when such organizations as the OSCE Permanent Council, the UN Security Council have turned into a battlefield," Vladimir Makei said.

The minister said that losing ‘the spirit of San Francisco when the United Nations was set up' is dangerous. “Back then, despite enormous political differences and contradictions, the leaders of states, being on different sides of the barricades, set up this organization,” the minister said.

“This spirit of San Francisco has been lost today. With infantilism in the policy of a number of Western leaders, we cannot find even some minimal points of contact, points for dialogue. Today it is extremely important and necessary,” Vladimir Makei said.

"The government has set up a group to counter sanctions. We carefully study all the decisions that any country makes in relation to Belarus, and develop adequate response measures. Similarly, in this situation, we are carefully analyzing the situation and will take appropriate steps, but we will make sure they do not damage our national, economic interests," Vladimir Makei said.

But even in spite of pressure from Europe and America and the sometimes undiplomatic language of interaction, Belarus will not abandon its policy of multi-vector policy. Yes, the concept has been reconsidered, and some areas have been prioritized. But our country will remain committed to a respectful and constructive dialogue.

The principles of adequate and equal interaction with international partners are already visible. Our exports have grown by a third. And we traded with Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the countries of the far arc.

The Foreign Ministry reasonably stated: we have allies, partners, understandable national interests, but we will not allow them to treat Belarus without respect.