Belarus warns UN assembly president of potash sanctions’ global impact

April 12, BPN. During yesterday’s meeting with Csaba Kőrösi, the president of the UN General Assembly, Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Juryj Ambrazievič pointed out the “negative impact of unilateral sanctions, illegally imposed by Western countries against the Belarusian potash industry, on global food security.”

According to the press office of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambrazievič cited studies by international institutions (the World Trade Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, and the World Bank) “indicating that the decline in Belarusian potash fertilizer supplies to the world market aggravates the international food instability.”

In a meeting with Li Junhua, the UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs, Ambrazievič also pointed to the perceived link between “export restrictions on Belarusian potash fertilizers” and the negative impact “on global food security.” He called for “eliminating the practice of unilateral coercive measures.”

“Particular attention was drawn to discrimination against Belarusian athletes, including Paralympians. The deputy-secretary-general reaffirmed the UN’s intention to defend the non-discrimination principle as much as possible on all platforms and in all formats,” the foreign ministry said.

Sanctions against the Belarusian potash industry may give rise to an additional problem in combatting humanitarian crises, Ambrazievič told Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), at their meeting in Geneva on March 2.

On March 29, media reported that the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights urged Lithuania to reconsider its ban on the transit of Belarusian fertilizers, citing a negative impact on food security in Africa and Latin America.