Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 25 January (BelTA) – Belarus suggests that the United Nations Organization should help advance cooperation between integration associations. Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Valentin Rybakov made the relevant statement during the high-level dialogue “Building sustainable peace for all: Synergies between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and sustaining peace” in the UN General Assembly, BelTA has learned.

In his speech Valentin Rybakov presented a number of Belarus’ proposals concerning topical areas of the UN work taking into account the need to toughen mutual relations between different processes in the organization. Belarus’ representative suggested that the UN should foster the harmonization of regional integration efforts, should contribute to enabling conditions conducive to cooperation of not only individual countries but integration associations, too. As the presiding country in the Central European Initiative in 2017 Belarus intends to pay close attention to this topic.

The Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs also spoke in favor of working out measures within the UN framework to overcome global alienation in political affairs and security matters. A new multilateral process was suggested with this in mind. The process is supposed to enable a sincere dialogue about reasons behind the crisis in international relations and about ways to overcome it. Belarus is ready to make its own contribution to the process, including by means of hosting various meetings and consultations.

The Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs also presented a number of practical ideas and proposals in such areas of UN operation as multilateral disarmament, integrated fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals, and improvement of methods of the UN system’s work. Valentin Rybakov welcomed the organization’s emerging understanding of the importance of correlation between peace and development. The day before Belarus and partners organized an event to discuss responsible state administration in the area of disarmament and non-proliferation for the sake of progress and sustainable development. The event contributed to a comprehensive look at the matters mentioned in Valentin Rybakov’s speech.