MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th July, 2022) Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said on Thursday that there was no mass departure of European ambassadors from the republic despite the deterioration in foreign affairs.
"Currently, there is no representative of the European Union and only a few European ambassadors. All the other foreign embassies in our country continue functioning at the level of ambassadors. Thus, there is no mass departure," Glaz told Belarusian broadcaster ONT.
Belarus is an open and friendly country, the spokesman said, adding that the presence of foreign ambassadors in the republic is important for the development of economic ties.
"However, an ambassador must work within the framework of the Vienna Convention (on Diplomatic Relations). Their main task is to develop friendly relations and cooperation with a hosting country... And ambassadors who have as their goal or are assigned to promote democracy, to be a human rights watchdog, to violate the law in any form, to assess the law enforcement and judicial system are not really ambassadors but a new synthetic expression of the Western vision of diplomatic work. Fortunately, no self-respecting sovereign country in the world agrees with this vision of diplomatic work and will not tolerate it," Glaz said.
Relations between Belarus and Western countries soured after the 2020 presidential election, which provoked mass protests in the republic that then were violently suppressed by law enforcement officers using special equipment. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused the West of direct interference in the situation in the republic. Western countries began gradually imposing sanctions against Belarusian officials and entities, accusing Minsk of election violations and human rights abuses.
Minsk has been facing another wave of sanctions for expressing support for Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, launched on February 24 after the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics appealed for help in fending off Ukrainian provocations. The United States and other Western countries have since been pressuring Moscow and Minsk with sanctions and providing Kiev with military and financial assistance.
