Foreign minister tells diplomats to counter sanctions, ensure growth

July 24, BPN. Foreign Minister Siarhiej Alejnik has tasked diplomats with countering Western sanctions and reducing their impact on Belarus, calling the restrictions unlawful and inefficient.

The government has experience in retaliating against sanctions and demonstrating their shortcomings to the world community, Alejnik said. He noted that this experience “should be used more actively to consolidate friendly countries.”

“We should brand Belarus as one of the countries at the core of sanity in the changing world,” he said.

He also urged diplomats to defend and safeguard independence and work toward economic growth. He called for much stronger cooperation with the “global South” and the “global East,” adding that exports are an “absolute priority” for the foreign ministry.

The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on Belarus because they disagree with how the government there treats its people and its neighbors.

Prime Minister Raman Hałoŭčanka said in March that the sanctions had a “direct blocking impact” on 25 percent of the Belarusian economy, and the remaining share was “under the indirect impact.”

Belarus redirected 80 percent of blocked exports to other countries, he said.

Russia is the main trading partner and export market, according to the foreign ministry.

Economist Leŭ Lvoŭski told BPN that relations with “far-arc countries” outside the main centers of power and influence cannot replace the European Union or even Ukraine for Belarus.