Shifting blame from stupid head to sane one
60- 5.04.2012, 15:47
Minsk offers the European Union to adopt a decision to return their ambassadors reasonably, the Belarusian Foreign Affairs Ministry stated.
Belarus finds it possible for the EU ambassadors to return to Minsk, but wants this decision to be adopted by the European Union reasonably and transparently, Interfax reports.
“Now, when the EU addresses us with an offer to return the ambassadors, we, frankly speaking, are shrugging shoulders and saying: “We have not expelled you, and we are not against your coming back.” But it should be done in a reasonable manner, understandable the people,” Syarhei Martynau, a Foreign Minister of Belarus said to journalists summing up the results of the consultations on foreign policy issues.
In particular, the minister noted that “if they return, and some sanctions are imposed in April, what kind of dialogue could it be?” “We are completely open in this topic. Ambassadors are a channel of a dialogue, and they certainly should work in countries, for the good in the relations between these countries,” the head of the Foreign Ministry stated.
Getting back to the issue of EU ambassadors’ leaving Minsk, the minister stressed: “By the way, we didn’t ask the ambassadors of the European Union member states to leave the country. We suggested two specific ambassadors should leave for a week perhaps for consultations,” he noted. “The response of the European Union was not proportional. It was massive. It was their initiative,” said the Foreign Minister of Belarus.
He also stated that issues of pardoning the convicted oppositionists are in no way related to the problems of relations between Belarus and the European Union.
“This topic does not have direct, and even no connection to the range of problems in our relations with the European Union at all,” the head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.
“We had suggested concrete moves for the EU, and if listened to, they would cause de-escalation of the situation even today. Unfortunately, it is not happening yet,” the minister stated.
