Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 8 October (BelTA) – Belarus is interested in cooperation with country offices of the UN agencies, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei has told the Belarus 1 TV Channel, BelTA has learned.

Vladimir Makei said that he upholds the proposals of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to reform the organization. “They are absolutely right. They seek to make the United Nations more agile and fast in responding to new challenges and threats and to make this response more adequate. These proposals are designed to improve the work of UN teams at the grassroots level. There are 18 UN offices operating in Belarus; it is a substantial team. It is important that they act in sync with the Belarusian government and respond to various developments very fast,” Vladimir Makei noted.

He added that the fight against cybercrime is getting increasingly relevant. “Therefore when we suggested holding a conference on terrorism in cyberspace in Minsk, our OSCE partners responded immediately. I am grateful to the UN leadership for their very positive attitude to this proposal,” the minister noted.

“I believe those ideas that we brought to the 73rd UN General Assembly and the ideas that we tried to communicate to our partners, will be translated into reality and will benefit Belarus. With this in mind, in our addresses and during various meetings at the UN we urged to embark on a new, inclusive, multi-format international dialogue that would help reduce tensions in the region and the world in general. This is the initiative put forward by the Belarusian president some time ago,” Vladimir Makei said.