MINSK, 28 February (BelTA) – Despite the pressure of Western sanctions and military and political tensions the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reminded the European Union about the spheres where the two sides could work together, BelTA has learned.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: “We are convinced that as neighbors Belarus and the European Union still have many intersecting interests”.
In particular, the ministry mentioned protection and management of Belarus’ borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. “Contrary to Brussels’ false statements about ‘a hybrid attack by migrants from Belarus’, the European agency Frontex states that the share of illegal migrants from the entire eastern direction (except for the largest Ukrainian section) accounted for only about 0.3% of the total flow of illegal migrants going to the European Union in 2023 and went down by a third in comparison with 2019,” the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted.
The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs went on saying that the results could have been even more impressive if in addition to efforts of Belarusian law enforcement agencies the authorities of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia had honored their international commitments concerning bilateral cooperation at the state border. However, the countries had unilaterally refused to do it.
“The common topics also include regional energy security. The realization of the project to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant has been recognized successful at the international level while Lithuania has been toiling for many years without a plan, without money or specialists in violation of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s recommendations on decommissioning the Ignalina nuclear power plant. The state of affairs vividly illustrates the opportunity for bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation in the sphere of power engineering that this country and its people have lost,” the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.
Belarus also stands ready for proper cooperation with the European Union in the sphere of nuclear energy industry in international formats on the platform of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and within the framework of bilateral interaction after the corresponding equal instruments and channels the European Union has unilaterally destroyed are restored.