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Belarus’ UN ambassador: Sanctions war against Belarus spills over into United Nations

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MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) - The sanctions war against Belarus has already spilled over into the UN, Belarus’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations Valentin Rybakov said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on 17 February, BelTA has learned.

The diplomat noted that the meeting mentioned the Budapest Memorandum, which provided security guarantees to Ukraine. But the document was not only about Ukraine, he said. The countries that signed the document promised not to take any actions, in particular economic coercion, against Belarus.

Everyone is well aware of the large-scale sanctions war waged by the collective West against Belarus, of attempts to strangle the country economically and politically. This war has long spilled into the UN, Valentin Rybakov said.

"Let me cite a concrete example. By the way, any country can find itself in a similar situation. As everyone is well aware, in 2006 Belarus placed its bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2024-2025 term. The election will be held on 8 June. For 15 years, Belarus had been the only candidate from the Eastern European Group. On 9 December 2021, Slovenia filed a bid for the same place, although in 2017 it had already submitted its bid for the 2042-2043 term in the group. I hope you all understand perfectly well that this is not a sovereign decision of Slovenia. We have no grievances against Slovenia in this regard. But the political motivation of such an anti-Belarusian step, I think, is clear to absolutely everyone," Belarus’ UN Ambassador noted.

"Are we afraid of losing the election, understanding the full scale of the anti-Belarusian campaign? No, we aren’t. If we lose, we will do so with dignity. We are grateful to those countries that have already expressed their support for us. I can only assure you that if Belarus is elected to the Security Council, we will pursue a principled, independent, responsible and honest policy," the diplomat stressed.

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