MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has stated that Minsk is ready for dialogue with the West yet is not hearing a voice of reason there so far.
"We are interested in resolving any conflicts by means of calm, normal, and as it is fashionable to say now, inclusive dialogue. This also concerns the internal political situation, and also our readiness for dialogue beyond [our] border," he said in an interview with the RT TV channel released on Monday. "We are ready even now to sit down at the negotiation table with any partner of ours willing to do so, but, unfortunately, so far we have not heard a single voice of reason in the Western collective choir," he explained.
According to the top diplomat, Belarus "has never been and does not intend to become a source of tension". "We have persistently repeated that we were interested in dialogue. We’ve always only responded to those restrictive measures that our partners adopted with regards to Belarus," he emphasized. He noted that Minsk is ready "to discuss specific directions of interaction, if there was true seriousness on the part of the partners for such a dialogue".
He also noted that against this background "the economy remains priority number one" for Belarus. "We think that the multivectorness principle remains relevant even during current complex times, when we have a number of difficulties in organizing our interaction with the countries of the so-called collective West," the foreign minister said. According to him, the notion of multivectorness does not mean that Belarus is going to "leave somebody and to join up with somebody else". "We want to have a balanced relationship with everybody. Yet, at the same time, we fully realize that there are states, partners, with whom we are simply obligated to have closer relations, for example, Russia," he emphasized.
At the same time, the top diplomat reiterated that Minsk "was forced to respond" after a failed coup attempt and a number of sanctions imposed by its Western partners on Belarus. "And we will respond adequately to those steps, negative steps that were and will be undertaken with regards to Belarus," he noted.
After last August’s presidential elections in Belarus, a number of European countries and the US did not recognize the election results, and deemed that the actions of Belarusian law enforcement against protesters were excessive. Against this background, the West has repeatedly imposed sanctions and other restrictions aimed at Belarus. The EU’s economic sectoral sanctions against Belarus became effective at the end of June.