Belarus may withdraw its application for membership in the Council of Europe. This was announced on Thursday, May 18, by the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Anatoly Glaz.
According to him, if the Council of Europe and Western countries continue their destructive line towards Belarus, Minsk will withdraw its application to join this structure. As a representative of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry stressed, the country “will continue to review the remaining formats of relations with the Council of Europe.” About it writes RIA Novosti with reference to the Belarusian media.
He also pointed out that the Council of Europe is doing everything to completely discredit itself in the eyes of ordinary citizens, including in Belarus. Anatoly Glaz stressed that “this is not the same organization” that Minsk has been striving to get into for 30 years.
“Having chosen a course of discrimination and infringement of the rights of Belarus, developing contacts with extremists calling for new sanctions and terrorist attacks against the country’s population, the Council of Europe has done everything to destroy the achievements of previous years,” he said, commenting on the Council of Europe summit in the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik on 16 -17 May, in the final documents of which Belarus is also mentioned.
In addition, Glaz noted that the thesis about Minsk’s involvement in the alleged forced displacement of Ukrainian children is “absolutely wild and inappropriate.” As the representative of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry emphasized, Minsk believes that every saved life is important, especially the life of a child. He also called on all states that signed the declaration of the Council of Europe to stop the instrumentalization and politicization of the problem of improving the health of Ukrainian children.
Belarus applied for membership in the Council of Europe in March 1993. However, in 1997, the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe decided to suspend the status of “special guest” from the National Assembly of Belarus.
