MINSK, May 26. /TASS/. Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has said that the West tends to politicize any field of cooperation with Minsk. He stressed that further escalation of tensions would not bring about anything good and asked the Western partners to take a sober-minded attitude, the news agency BelTA reports.
"Any field of cooperation with Belarus is getting politicized. Wholesale slander against the Belarusian people and the state is commonplace in the West," Makei said in parliament at the president's meeting with legislators, members of the Constitutional Commission and members of government agencies.
He stressed that the sanctions against Belarus were geared to ruining the economy and the state and that a further escalation would not bring about anything good. He urged the Western partners to change their mind.
"Problems must be resolved at the negotiating table. It is a fundamental position of ours," Makei said.
He pointed out that the current developments on Belarus' western flank by no means fitted in with a normal picture of international and inter-state relations.
"It makes no sense to try to explain this by classical paradigms, such as pragmatism, people's interests and the preservation of peace and stability in regions. A number of our so-called partners brush this aside offhand," Makei said. He warned that Belarus would make a proportionate response to all sanctions and restrictions.