The Belarusian Foreign Ministry calls the policy of sanctions ‘counterproductive’ and ‘wrong’.

The Belarusian government hopes that the European Union will soon abolish its sanctions against Belarus, Dzmitry Mironchyk, spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, said at Thursday’s briefing, news agency BelaPAN reports.

The unilateral imposition of sanctions runs counter to international norms and principles, including those enshrined in the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, Mr. Mironchyk said.

“We have repeatedly stated that the European Union’s decisions to introduce restrictive measures against the Republic of Belarus are unacceptable and radically wrong,” he said. “One cannot talk to a partner and a neighbor in the language of sanctions and ultimatums.”

Such measures undermine confidence in the EU rather than cause real damage to Belarus and have some influence on the situation, the spokesman stressed. Belarus hopes that the leaderships of the EU’s institutions and countries will ‘realize the futility’ of sanctions against Belarus and remove them soon, paving the way for the normalization of relations between Minsk and Brussels, he said.

A total of 175 individuals, including president Alyaksandr Lukashenka, are currently subject to entry bans and all of them plus 18 economic entities are subject to asset freezes within the European Union.

Belsat.eu via BelaPAN

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