Events

Belarus' MFA: Victories or losses in battlefield will not solve contradictions

MINSK, 1 March (BelTA)  - Victories or losses on battlefield will not eliminate security threats or solve the contradictions, Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yuri Ambrazevich said as he addressed the High-level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, BelTA has learned.

“On 22 March, in less than a month, Belarus will commemorate a sad date: 80 years of destruction of the village Khatyn. Its name became a symbolic name for more than 600 Belarusian villages burned down together with their inhabitants during the Second World War,” Yuri Ambrazevich noted.

“Our memory is a tribute to the victims of the genocide committed by the army of Nazi Germany and the soldiers of a number of other European states against the Belarusian people. Speaking in this room five years ago, in the run-up to the 75th anniversary of the Khatyn’s tragedy, the Belarusian delegation warned of a premonition of a big disaster – a new armed conflict in Europe. As we see today, the instincts of the nation that has lost every third citizen in the war proved right. Surely, it was not only the premonitions of the Belarusian people — the people of guerilla fighters, and the victorious people. A lot of experts and rational politicians around the world spoke about this. Even then, five years ago, there were plenty of signs of the growing global security crisis,” the deputy minister said.

Among them, he singled out the weakness of the Conference on Disarmament, and almost total collapse of the BTWC and the CCW, the dismantling of the INF Treaty, long-term neglect by some states of legitimate security interests of their neighbors, primarily through NATO’s eastward expansion and the USA’s de facto refusal to discuss Russia’s security proposals at the end of 2021. “As a result, the Ukrainian crisis erupted,” the Belarusian diplomat stressed. “Given this tangle of problems and contradictions, do we have a chance to restore the balance of interests, regain equilibrium in security and return peace to Ukraine and Europe?”

This is not an idle question for Belarus, the country which has pressing and justified concerns about its security, the country against which the collective West has imposed the measures of economic coercion and has waged an information war in order to change the legitimate government, Yuri Ambrazevich said.

“This is an existential question for Belarus, the country that is the closest neighbor of the theater of military operations in Ukraine. Every country has the right to protect its interests, respond to threat in a timely and adequate manner, especially when the state believes it faces existential security challenges. It is obvious for Belarus that victories or losses on the battlefield during a war in its classical meaning will not eliminate security threats or solve the accumulated contradictions. For Belarus, it is also clear that the continuing militarization of Ukraine with more advanced and longer-range weapons amplifies the risk of new states getting drawn into the conflict. Sooner or later this could lead to a direct clash of the nuclear-armed states. There will be the right or wrong side of the universal catastrophe,” Yuri Ambrazevich said.

“Is the modern architecture of international relations capable of preventing a real hot Third World War where will be no winner? Perhaps all of us should actively look for capable and interested players, both among influential countries and international structures whose peacekeeping and unifying actions would allow to prevent a destructive global conflict. Maybe the world needs new unexpected security guarantors, asymmetric alliances and initiatives. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is gaining its role and weight. The Collective Security Treaty Organization has proved its worth. The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia is full of potential, and BRICS can play a special role. After all, if things get out of hand in Ukraine, in Europe, this will affect everyone. Nobody will have a place to hide. Belarus has long foreseen tragedy and persistently called for the negotiation process to determine the political and legal foundations of global security. We, as before, remain deeply convinced that there is no alternative to negotiations,” the diplomat said.