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Minsk suppresses any attempts to dictate who it should be friends with — Belarusian MP

Belarus has never posed a threat to any of its neighbors, the official stressed

MINSK, February 20. /TASS/. Belarus does not accept attempts to dictate who it should be allied with and which leaders to choose, Chairman of the Standing Commission on International Affairs of the Belarusian House of Representatives Sergey Rachkov said on Thursday.

"We do not accept attempts, including under the cover of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to dictate who we should be friends with or what leaders we have to choose," Rachkov said at a meeting of the OSCE General Committee on Political Affairs and Security in Vienna. "Our delegation rejects the assessments of the situation in Belarus voiced in speeches as not corresponding to reality. Our forced retaliatory security measures are consistent and transparent for the international community," the state-run BelTA news agency quoted Rachkov as saying.

The Belarusian side has been making important contributions to regional peace and security, the chairman noted. For the second year in a row Minsk is hosting an international conference on Eurasian security, demonstrating that it can create opportunities for fostering principles of peaceful coexistence both in Europe and Eurasia, he added. "We organized the conference on illegal migration in Minsk just as responsibly and invited all our Western neighbors. Their withdrawal from the proposed dialogue speaks better than words," Rachkov said.

Belarus has never posed a threat to any of its neighbors, the chairman stressed. "However, Belarus faced unprecedented unilateral coercive measures from the Western countries, the relentless expansion of NATO territory, military escalation and intensification of drills near Belarusian borders - we cannot but evaluate all these threats pragmatically," Rachkov specified.

The Belarusian delegation, headed by Rachkov, is taking part in the 24th Winter Meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Vienna on February 20-21. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry previously sent an invitation to participate in the observation of the January 26 presidential election to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. The organization declined the invitation, calling it belated.

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