/ / News
30.10.2012

Belarus, Russia ‘in full harmony’ on international agenda

MINSK, 30 October (BelTA) – After a joint meeting in Minsk on 30 October Foreign Minister of Belarus Vladimir Makei and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov stressed that the two countries are in full harmony on the main issues of the international agenda, BelTA has learnt.

“We have full understanding of all the prospects in our cooperation in the international arena. We have good relations between the Foreign Ministries. These union relations penetrate our joint activity. We follow common approaches in the international arena. We have no difference of principle or even smaller problematic issues,” Vladimir Makei said.

Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov expressed satisfaction with the results of the joint meeting. “This mechanism proved itself to be an efficient ground for elaboration of coordinated steps in various foreign political issues,” he noted.

According to Sergei Lavrov, the meeting discussed the specific areas of cooperation between the foreign ministries of Belarus and Russia. This is, in particular, cooperation in the UN, particularly with regard to human rights. “We agreed on concrete steps in this area, the harmonious effort towards the implementation of the global plan of action to combat trafficking in human beings. The plan was initiated by Belarus and adopted with the active support of Russia,” said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The parties also discussed the issues of reforming the OSCE. “The proposals of Russia, Belarus and other members of the CSTO have long been on the negotiating table. We have agreed that we will draw attention to these initiatives at the forthcoming OSCE ministerial meeting in Dublin,” Sergei Lavrov said.

The meeting also touched upon the issues of information security. In this area, Belarus and Russia have also agreed on concerted and coordinated steps to promote fair approaches to this issue.

Particular attention was given to joint effort to counter the attempt to falsify history. “Counteracting the falsification of history is one of the areas we pay close attention to in our joint work. We are convinced that the respect for the memory of the millions of people, who gave their lives to free Europe from fascism, is incompatible with attempts to rewrite history. We deem such attempts an assault on the rulings of the Nuremberg Trials,” said the Russian Foreign Minister. According to Sergei Lavrov, the parties discussed other things “including the support of the Russian Federation for the active involvement of the Republic of Belarus in the operation of the Council of Europe, the Council of the Baltic Sea States and other regional multilateral bodies”.