All news

Minsk prepared for mutually beneficial cooperation, rejects sanctions

"We do not want much – we simply want they to develop relations the way we do it – with respect and on equal terms,” minister said

UNITED NATIONS, September 27 (Itar-Tass) —— The world needs a global strategy against chaos based on the strengthening of international law to deter unlawfulness and outrage, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov said at the 66th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

“De facto, force still tramples upon law, including the right of states to choose the way of their development,” he said.

Belarus has experienced both attacks and economic sanctions for the choice its people made in the presidential election, Martynov said. “Belarusians will never waive their right to choose,” he said. “The definition of our way of development is a holy value. Neither sanctions, nor blackmail nor threats can change our position,” he noted.

Minsk is prepared for mutually beneficial cooperation with all states, including those “with which it has major disagreements,” he said. “We do not want much – we simply want they to develop relations the way we do it – with respect and on equal terms,” he said.

The Western sanctions on Belarus are rooted in the events that happened in Minsk on December 19, 2010, after the presidential election. Thousands of supporters of ex-opposition presidential candidates were dispersed for protesting against what they called falsification of the election results. Dozens of the protesters and journalists were beaten and hundreds of opposition members were arrested. Several ex-presidential candidates and their associates were convicted.

The sanctions banned visits of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, some government members, law enforcers, judges, election commission members and state media journalists to the United States, EU countries and some other Western states.