Belarusian Foreign Ministry: Unmotivated actions of the Latvian authorities are deplorable

The actions of Latvian politicians are beyond any comprehension. That's how the Belarusian Foreign Ministry commented on the decision of the Latvian government to unilaterally withdraw from the intergovernmental agreement on the basic principles of cross-border cooperation in 1998, BelTA informs.

"Apparently, the course, chosen by Latvian politicians to deliberately whip up hysteria in relations with neighbors during the election campaign, as well as a traditional desire to always be in the forefront of the European mainstream, provokes them into action that is beyond our understanding. We are talking primarily about Latvia's fight against the sacred memory of the Great Patriotic War victims and the barbaric destruction of monuments, expulsion of its own citizens for having an alternative opinion, targeted discrimination against the Russian language, heavyfines for watching the news TV channels," stated in the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the initiative to withdraw from international agreements with the Belarusian side was not unexpected against this background: "The sword of Latvian bureaucracy has already managed to attack such "threatening the safety of the neighboring country" areas of cooperation as service dogs, statistics, forensic medicine and agriculture. Now it's the turn of border cooperation and energy cooperation."

"Such unmotivated actions of the Latvian authorities are only deplorable, especially since the agreement on cross-border cooperation provided for the development of contacts between local authorities in areas of mutual interest. That is absolutely pragmatic things in the interests of the peoples of the two countries. At the same time, we are well aware that another step of official Riga is largely aimed to distract the citizens of Latvia from the growing socio-economic problems in their own country," said the Foreign Ministry.

The department has no doubt that the confrontation period will end, the old and new agreements will be restored, while Latvia will remember it as a time of missed opportunities for mutually respectful cooperation with a friendly neighboring country.