MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei stated on Tuesday that Minsk is not going to close its representative offices in EU countries in the near future.
"At this stage, we are not planning to close our foreign offices in any EU country right now, but, of course, we will monitor the situation. We think that the EU can be a normal partner for Belarus but in order to achieve this it is necessary to return to those reasonable foundations of coexistence which were present in our contacts some time ago," the BelTA news agency quoted the top diplomat as saying.
The foreign minister reiterated that at the beginning of this year there was already a discussion about optimizing the foreign offices at the level of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. At the same time, following a meeting on the priorities of the country’s foreign policy earlier on Tuesday, the chief diplomat noted that the closure of the representative office in any country was not discussed.
"It was mentioned that it was necessary to see how the situation would unfold in terms of the further sanctions standoff between Belarus and the so-called collective West. We monitor the situation closely and, of course, we will see," he said. According to the top diplomat, in the absence of economic prospects in relations with any countries, the authorities will consider appropriate proposals.