MINSK (TASS) – Belarus is ready to end confrontation with the West, and has made concrete proposals in this regard, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the Belarus-1 TV channel.
Commenting on his participation in the meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) foreign ministers in Stockholm, the minister said, “What is said publicly during such public events is one thing. On the sidelines, however, our colleagues say that we all should make a stop and start thinking of how to stop fuelling tensions any further and prevent the situation from spiraling further down.”
“We are ready for that,” he said. “We have made concrete proposals.”
“Clearly, this won’t happen immediately,” the minister continued. “I think that there is always a way out of any situation, including out of this complicated situation in the current relations between Belarus and the European Union.”
The minister said he met with some of his Western colleagues on the sidelines of the event in Stockholm, but did not name those diplomats.
“I had a series of meetings with my colleagues, and they were officially reported on the foreign ministry’s website. The majority of meetings was held behind closed doors, and we did not report them, because our colleagues requested to keep this information confidential,” Makei added.
The remarks came just a day after the Belarusian foreign ministry lashed out at the West for imposing fresh sanctions on Belarus after accusing Minsk of stoking a migrant crisis.
The U.S., Canada, and their European allies, which have accused Minsk of hijacking the crisis for “political reasons,” decided on Thursday to broaden their restrictive economic measures targeting more Belarusian officials and businesses.
“The depth of the absurdity of the EU’s decision on the latest sanctions against sovereign Belarus and its very content is by now difficult to comprehend,” the ministry emphasized in an official statement that further censured the West for “demonizing” Belarus while vowing “tough” retaliatory measures.