FM: Belarus’ relations with European Union are ‘in crisis’

Belarus’ relations with the European Union, with the so-called collective West in general, are in crisis, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said in a recent interview with the Euronews TV channel, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “ Although we have always regarded the European Union as our second largest trade and economic partner, as a source of technologies and innovations for Belarus,” Vladimir Makei noted. “Believe me, for the past five years since the sanctions against Belarus were lifted we had achieved much more than in the 15 years when the sanctions were in force against Belarus, both in trade and economy, in humanitarian and human rights matters, so on,” the minister of foreign affairs said.

“What do we have today? Even well-known human rights organization Freedom House, which is not sympathetic to Belarus, stated on 28 April, that the idea of a more democratic Belarus is now a more distant perspective than before,” the minister said. The only question is why it happened? “The question is rhetorical. It is, first of all, addressed to those advocates of human rights in Europe,” Vladimir Makei said.