MINSK, December 14. /TASS/. The US-led West’s economic blitzkrieg against Minsk has failed but efforts to counter sanctions need to continue, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said on Wednesday.
"We have successfully passed the most dangerous period in terms of economic pressure. Today, we can say with confidence that an economic blitzkrieg has failed, which certainly sparks anger among those who expected Belarus to crumble," he said, introducing the country’s new Foreign Minister Sergey Aleinik to the ministry’s staff.
However Golovchenko emphasized that efforts to fight the sanctions-induced pressure should not "turn into a routine" for the Belaruisan Foreign Ministry. He explained that instead of "collecting information about the sanctions introduced," the diplomatic agency needed "to calculate the consequences and put together proposals to minimize the damage when such plans targeting Belarus are at their nascent stage of development."
The prime minister highlighted the need to explain to people in unfriendly countries that Belarus was forced to respond to the West’s hostile steps.
On Tuesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree appointing Aleinik to the position of the country’s top diplomat, left vacant following the death of Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei on November 26.