Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's opening remarks at a joint meeting of Russian and Belarusian foreign ministry collegiums, Moscow, November 10, 2021
10 November 202115:46
2281-10-11-2021
Mr Makei,
Mr Mezentsev,
Colleagues,
We are delighted to welcome you to Moscow for the annual joint meeting of Russian and Belarusian foreign ministry collegiums.
I am pleased to note that we can meet in person to discuss current aspects of our foreign policy interaction despite the complicated sanitary and epidemiological situation.
This meeting is part of a rich Russian-Belarusian dialogue, which has visibly intensified recently. The Supreme State Council of the Union State held a historic meeting on November 4, 2021, during which our leaders approved a package of integration documents, including the Guidelines for Implementing the Provisions of the Treaty Establishing the Union State in 2021-2023 and 28 industry-based Union programmes. They also approved an updated Military Doctrine and the Migration Policy Concept of the Union State. These decisions set out concrete parameters for the long-term development of Russia-Belarus integration in many areas.
Our foreign ministries have a major role to play in the implementation of the agreements reached. Our discussion today on the programme of concerted foreign policy activities over the next two years will focus on foreign policy support for the implementation of the integration decisions of the Supreme State Council and the Council of Ministers of the Union State. But first we will review the results of the implementation of the current programme for 2020-2021. We believe that our joint efforts within the framework of this basic document allowed us to effectively resist the attempts of the "collective West" to put pressure on our countries. We cooperated quite effectively to react against the anti-Belarus campaign launched by Washington and its European allies at international organisations, including the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and ICAO. We closely coordinated our approaches. Working closely with our allies and like-minded parties, we repelled the attempts to use these multinational platforms to the detriment of our two countries' interests. I would like to point out that we worked in keeping with the programme's provisions to support Belarusian initiatives advanced within the framework of its chairmanship of the Eurasian Economic Union in 2020 and the CIS in 2021. I am confident that we will maintain and even strengthen interaction between our foreign ministries during the implementation of the next two-year programme.
Today, we will also touch base on our cooperation at international human rights platforms and emphasise the unacceptable nature of interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign states and politicising this topic. We appreciate the coordination with our Belarusian colleagues in this sphere, including within the United Nations and the OSCE. Together, we advocate making the UN's human rights dimension politics-free, with the elimination of the vicious practice of slamming specific countries with groundless accusations under far-fetched pretexts. We condemn the rubber-stamping of politicised country resolutions that have nothing to do with a genuine commitment to enforcing universal human rights norms. We proceed from the premise that actions of this kind erode trust in the United Nations and seriously undermine the reputation of its human rights dimension. We are also confident that abusing human right mechanisms within the OSCE and the Council of Europe makes these pan-European structures less effective and prevents them from fulfilling their unifying potential.
As for economic sanctions, in our opinion they can only be used as a last-resort measure, and only as decided by the UN Security Council for addressing threats to international peace and security. In this connection, unilateral coercive measures are unacceptable. They run counter to international law and are used by the West to pressure governments that it views as being undesirable.
Efforts by Russia and Belarus to reinvigorate the UN's cooperation with the CSTO and the CIS is another important item on today's agenda. The UN General Assembly adopted resolutions to this effect during its 75th session, which became possible thanks to the coordinated work by the delegations from CSTO and CIS countries, proving once again that these two regional associations are highly respected on the international stage. Just like our Belarusian friends, we believe that the CSTO has a substantial peacebuilding potential and can contribute to the joint efforts to maintain peace and security with the UN playing a central coordinating role.
We will discuss non-proliferation, disarmament, and arms control. Tension has been on the rise in this sphere, along with uncertainty, with the exacerbation of old and the emergence of new challenges and threats. Efforts to water down the existing international arms control architecture are continuing, while military and political factors which undermine global strategic stability are gaining momentum. In this regard, having all countries abide by their international commitments in good faith is especially relevant.
Moscow and Minsk stand for the restoration of trust and the promotion of constructive dialogue in the Euro-Atlantic region in order to prevent an arms race and military build-ups to the detriment of long-term security interests of all countries within this region. We attach great importance to coordinating the steps we make, including within the CSTO and CIS. We have achieved a high level of bilateral cooperation within the UN General Assembly, the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation, the IAEA, the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Conference on Disarmament. We will also discuss developments around the Open Skies Treaty in the wake of the withdrawal of the United States.
Russia and Belarus share similar positions on the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, as well as on the question of "inhumane" weapons. Since our US colleagues terminated the INF Treaty, we have persisted in our calls to find ways of dealing with the missile issue with predictability and restraint. It is obvious that this work is as relevant as ever.
Colleagues,
I am certain that during today's meeting we will discuss in detail all matters on our agenda and take the necessary decisions in order to uphold the traditionally close and trust-based cooperation between our foreign ministries.
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