PARIS, November 12. /TASS/. Double standards are exploited over the migrant crisis at the Belarusian border with Poland and Lithuania, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the French defense and foreign ministers at the 2+2 talks on Friday.

"Our French counterparts touched upon the migrant crisis at Belarus’ border with Poland and Lithuania," the Russian foreign minister said at a press conference. "We clarified the situation in which there should not be any double standards, compared to the way migrants are treated in other EU countries, but not at the border with Belarus. One needs to act in the same way, fully respecting the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law."

However, Lavrov admitted that Russia would "hardly be able to convince the counterparts."

"At least, we have arguments which they did not argue with," he said. "They just urged us to help persuade Minsk to resolve this problem. But it depends not only on Minsk, as there should be a constructive approach from the European Union."

The migrant crisis escalated dramatically on November 8 at the border of Belarus with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, where migrants have been flocking to since the beginning of 2021. Several thousand people have approached the Polish border from Belarusian territory and are not leaving the border area. Some of them tried to storm into Poland by getting over the barbed wire fence. European Union nations have accused Minsk of deliberate escalation and called for sanctions. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Western states are to shoulder the blame for the crisis as their actions make people flee from war.