UN Security Council tries to punish Belarus for its independent foreign policy

An attempt to oust Belarus. A heated debate erupted in New York. Slovenia's nomination in addition to Belarus as a candidate for non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council for 2024-2025 is a politicized decision, which is actually an attempt to punish Belarus for its independent foreign policy and approaches in the international arena. This was stated by our permanent representative to the UN Valentin Rybakov.

Valentin Rybakov, Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN:

“We have tried to do our best, what we can, to hold the first three rounds of negotiations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine in the territory of Belarus. You all know about these efforts. Both the Russian Federation and Ukraine have not been particularly successful in these negotiations, and it's not our fault. We gave everything we could. We gave both sides an opportunity to sit down at the negotiating table and discuss the problematic issue and find a solution to the problem. But no solution was found. People are still dying, people are still killing each other on the battlefield. And this is a tragedy. And if one of the arguments for Slovenia to be elected to the UN Security Council is concern for Ukraine, please don't say that Slovenia knows more about the situation in Ukraine than we do. Because we don't.”

For 15 years, Belarus was the only candidate from the Eastern European group. Ljubljana did not submit its application until 2021. The fact that just a couple of days after the decision of Slovenia, the vacant place for 2042-2043 was quickly taken by Northern Macedonia, indicates a planned and deliberate nature of the action, said Valentin Rybakov.