Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 1 January (BelTA) - Belarus has been offered to preside over some prominent international organizations, Belarus’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the Belarus 1 TV channel on 31 December, BelTA learned.

Vladimir Makei said that in 2017 Belarus held the presidency in the Central European Initiative, and the partners described it as very successful.

“We were asked to think over taking the presidency in some other, more prominent organizations. For the time being I would not want to dwell on it, but we are thinking over it weighing all pros and cons. I think the decision will be taken at a later time,” the minister said.

In his opinion, the perception of Belarus and the approaches to developing the cooperation with it have changed in a positive way in the West. This was, in many ways, thanks to the country’s position on a number of sensitive issues.

“Belarus played host to the 26th session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, presided over the Central European Initiative, hosted the anniversary summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization - all this shows that the world began to see Belarus differently. This is very encouraging. This is still just the beginning,” the minister noted.

Talking about the priorities of Belarus’ foreign policy in 2018, Vladimir Makei noted that Belarus will continue to develop the cooperation with the traditional partners, pay significant attention to the relations with China, the EU and the United States, the countries of South-East Asia, Latin America. In addition, the Belarusian diplomats intend to work more actively with some African states. “Plans are many. They are immense as the well-known classical poet said,” the minister noted.