News & Events in Belarus

MINSK, 22 September (BelTA) – The past few decades have been fraught with two contradictory tendencies – enhanced political fragmentation and increased economic globalization, Belarus’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei told the United Nations General Assembly on 21 September, BelTA has learned.

“The former has been associated with global political instability resulting from wars, conflicts, terrorism, xenophobia and other factors – giving rise to mounting chaos and despondency,” Vladimir Makei said. The reason why the world found itself in this predicament was because it failed to put an end to the last epochal conflict – the cold war, Vladimir Makei believes.

“It did not end with the peace treaty as had usually been the case in all previous epochal wars. Therefore, we were left without a universally accepted framework which could have guided our subsequent behavior. Different powers began to interpret this state of geopolitical uncertainty in different ways and began to act accordingly. What was comprehensible and legitimate for some was incomprehensible and illegitimate for others. By and large, all the problems that have piled up since the early 1990s resulted from our inability to bring an end to the cold war. But it is never late to do what is right,” Vladimir Makei noted.

In this regard the minister recalled that last year the Belarus president came up with the idea to launch a new negotiating process similar to the 1970 Helsinki process. “Certainly it should be done with those challenges and threats in mind that are relevant for all of us today. We are talking about expanding and reconsidering this format. We suggest that some key global players like China, Russia, the United States and the European Union engage collectively in a dialogue about the strategic vision to build new constructive relations. The Republic of Belarus, for its part, stands ready to serve as a convenient place. We are willing to carry out such a task with the same high degree of responsibility as we did in our effort to end the conflict in Ukraine over the past several years. Minsk stands prepared to become a bridge that would link the old with the yet unborn,” Vladimir Makei said.

He believes that the agreements emanating from the dialogue would, essentially, put an end to the last epochal war. The United Nations could subsequently engage in its implementation. “Thus we would be able to turn the tide of rising political fragmentation in the world,” the minister said.

“Perhaps some people would consider this not realistic today. But this is exactly how three years ago the proposal put forward by the President of Belarus to send peacekeepers to Ukraine was perceived. And today this idea has been revived and has been actively discussed in the United Nations,” Vladimir Makei added.