Belarus Foreign Ministry's detailed comment on a series of EU statements

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus has studied the similar statements of the European Union and some member states about the elections held in our country. Another conclusions of the EU Council and the decision to extend the illegal sanctions were taken into consideration.

All these statements with prepared in advance conclusions contain nothing new. We regard them as ongoing unsuccessful attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of our country.

We note that the new illegal restrictive measures that are being introduced against Belarus are the subject of study by the law enforcement agencies and may become a legitimate basis for new criminal cases against the persons who initiated them, including those who have already been convicted of similar crimes, but who are still evading serving their sentences abroad.

The rhetoric of the examined statements is full of blatant falsifications, many passages and slogans detached from reality.

In order not to be unsubstantiated, let us give just a few examples.

The European Union's declared “support for the people of Belarus” against the background of countless economic restrictions against our country can be characterised as cynical duplicity. Both trade bans, as well as the suspension of air and passenger railway communication, the closure of checkpoints, the introduction of a de facto ban on the supply of vital medicines to Belarus, a forced ban on the functioning of sanatoriums for children, and other restrictive measures of the EU on interaction with Belarus are unfounded and collective in nature and are aimed at the vast majority of ordinary Belarusians.

We draw attention to the fact that our country has not proactively taken a single step against the EU, business or its citizens.

The declaration by the European Union of its concerns about the issues of our country's domestic policy looks senseless at the simultaneous refusal of the eurobureaucracy and the majority of the EU members from direct interstate cooperation with the authorities of independent and sovereign Belarus.

We have repeatedly stated both publicly at the level of the Head of State and through diplomatic channels that we are ready for an equal and mutually respectful dialogue with any powers in the West that are ready for such a conversation. In Minsk, we proceed from the premise that only dialogue and interaction allow us to address any concerns and resolve any problems.

We reject the unfounded accusations by the EU of some special regime of serving sentences for individual citizens of Belarus, whose fates attract special attention in Western political circles only because of their political leanings. All citizens of the Republic of Belarus serving sentences for criminal offences, as in any EU country, are subject without any discrimination to the requirements of the relevant laws on penal regimes. All prisoners shall receive the necessary medical and other assistance in the manner and to the extent specified by law.

The groundless public demands of the EU to release certain individuals convicted under national legislation by a competent court on criminal charges on the basis of political preferences of European governments and politicians cast doubt on Europe's true commitment to the rule of law.

Our legitimate rejection caused the constant endeavour of politicians and bureaucrats of the European Union to assess the political processes in Belarus and, in particular, the elections.

We emphasize that the sovereign right to govern its State belongs only to the Belarusian people. The Belarusian people have enough experience, knowledge and wisdom to determine the forms of people's power on their own, and do not need imposing advice and prescriptions. The amendments to the Constitution, prepared taking into account the opinion of broad layers of society, the formation of the All-Belarusian People's Assembly — is this not the “inclusive dialogue”, which is so insistently demanded of us?

Observation missions from the CIS and SCO countries, including representatives of almost 20 states, were invited to Belarus to observe the elections that just took place. Individual observers from Western European countries also monitored the elections in the country. Both foreign and domestic observers, whose number exceeded 40 thousand people, recognised the election campaign as complying with the Belarusian legislation.

It is important to note that both the CIS and the SCO have unified documents agreed upon by all member states on the subject of international election observation. Belarus has been a member of the CIS since its establishment and is planning to become a full member of the SCO in the near future.

We reaffirm our willingness to work on establishing common electoral standards for all European countries in the OSCE format on the principles of equal rights and mutual respect. In the meantime, proposals from Belarus and Russia to develop them have been rejected by Western countries.

Taking into account that the majority of the EU countries are not only members of the world’s most armed military-political organization, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but are also disproportionally increasing their military capabilities, the EU condemnation of steps to implement the sovereign right of Belarus to deploy nuclear weapons on its territory in full compliance with international law, allows to state with confidence that our defensive actions are absolutely justified.

The European Union's reference to the Budapest Memorandum does not stand up to any criticism.

Article 1 of this document obliges the guarantor states, represented by the USA and Great Britain, to “respect the independence, sovereignty and existing borders of the Republic of Belarus”.

Article 3 stipulates that the guarantor states will “refrain from economic coercion aimed at subordinating to their interests the rights implemented by the Republic of Belarus, which are inherent in its sovereignty, and thus securing for themselves advantages of any kind”. In this regard, we remind that the EU imposed the first illegal economic sanctions against Belarus more than 20 years ago, and all these years the Western countries categorically refused to discuss their direct violations under the document, and some of them even declared the absence of its legal force for them.

Belarus and the European Union have different views on the essence and causes of the situation in Ukraine. The Belarusian side is seriously concerned about Brussels' support of neo-Nazis and the nationalist policy of the Ukrainian political leadership, the expansion of NATO and Kiev's intention to become a member of this organization.

Many sensible politicians in the EU countries who, like Belarus, speak in favour of a peaceful settlement as soon as possible. Concurrently, Belarus continues to provide as much assistance as it can to ordinary people affected by the conflict, including providing conditions for children to stay in health camps in Belarus with the opportunity to study and receive medical care.

We are convinced that Belarus and the European Union, as neighbours, have many more overlapping and intersecting interests.

In particular, the protection and management of joint borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia should be singled out. Contrary to the false claims emanating from Brussels about a “hybrid attack by migrants from Belarus”, according to the European agency FRONTEX, the share of illegal migration from the entire eastern direction (excluding the largest Ukrainian section) in 2023 was only about 0.3% of the total flow of illegal migrants into the EU and decreased by a third compared to 2019. The results could have been even more impressive if, in addition to the efforts of Belarusian law enforcement agencies, the authorities of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia had fulfilled their international obligations for bilateral cooperation at the state border, which they have unilaterally abandoned.

Regional energy security also belongs to common themes. The successful and internationally recognized implementation of the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction project against the backdrop of Lithuania's many years of struggling without a plan, without money and without specialists in violation of the relevant IAEA recommendations on the decommissioning of the Ignalina NPP clearly illustrates the missed opportunity of this country and its population for bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation in the energy sector.

Belarus stands ready for proper cooperation with the EU in the nuclear energy sector in international formats on the IAEA platform and within the framework of bilateral interaction after the restoration of the relevant equitable instruments and channels destroyed unilaterally by the EU.

Special attention should be paid to the EU's flaunted “support of civil society and democratic forces of Belarus”.

Brussels' blatant support for exclusively pro-Western, Russophobic and nationalist forces is alarming. The EU should understand that interaction with certain persons who receive asylum and external financing in Poland and Lithuania, as well as those who call for and carry out proven activities to overthrow the legitimate authorities and break the constitutional order in Belarus by armed or terrorist methods, means that the European Union consciously supports criminals, finances extremists and is oriented towards terrorist ways of achieving its goals.

Summarizing, we state that the actual, but never achieved objectives of the recent statements and steps of the European Union still remain the deterioration of the welfare, everyday life and freedom of movement of Belarusian citizens, as well as the weakening of the economic sovereignty of the Republic of Belarus.

Instead of returning to an equal dialogue in order to restore trust and ensure security in the region, the European Union continues to pursue an unpromising and dangerous line of confrontation, aggravating the already fragile situation on the continent.

We can only hope that the results of the election campaigns in 2024 will encourage the emergence of more responsible and sensible politicians in Brussels who will be able to return to the development of pragmatic relations with their neighbours.

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