MINSK, March 13. /TASS/. By imposing transport restrictions, closing border crossings and creating problems with banking transactions, Western Europe is painting a clear picture of a new Iron Curtain, Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Ambrazevich said speaking at the regional forum of the UN Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva dedicated to sustainable development.

"In Europe, barriers between regional economic unions are becoming more and more clearly visible. Restrictions on transport, closure of border checkpoints, trade bans, problems with banking transactions, bans on visas, and on cultural cooperation clearly paint a picture of a new Iron Curtain," he said as quoted by the press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

In his assessment, Western Europe was the main factor in the global food crisis, "provoking through its individual actions an increase in grain prices, depriving, in particular, African countries of access to Belarusian potash fertilizers."

The deputy minister noted that the energy infrastructure, which was designed to connect Europe and Asia, is rapidly transforming in the opposite direction.

"All this allows us to say that the opportunities for implementing the sustainable development goals [UN SDGs] in Europe itself have significantly narrowed," the diplomat went on.

"All this also calls into question Europe’s leading role in the global achievement of the SDGs," he concluded.