Belarusian MFA confirms Makiej’s conversation with the US Assistant Secretary of State on the situation in Belarus and in the region

February 4, BPN. Belarusian Foreign Ministry confirmed a conversation between Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makiej and US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried on the situation in Belarus and in the region.

“Yes, indeed, yesterday (February 3 – BPN) such a conversation took place at the initiative of the American side. In fact, a wide range of issues was covered, although the State Department’s one-sided presentation of the discussion’s content is no longer surprising. The sides discussed primarily the current situation in the region. The American side was informed about our vision of the developments and in turn, they shared their concerns,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anatol Hlaz stated.

“In this context, of course, as the minister stressed, the allegations of some kind of proactive military aggression from the territory of Belarus against Ukraine are simply ridiculous,” Hlaz said. In his opinion, “any Belarusian can probably understand that this kind of fabrication can only exist in the minds of pseudo-strategists and pseudo-analysts, knowing very little about our region.”

“Due to the interest of the American side, we are also emphasizing that the planned military exercises on the territory of our country, which are surrounded by hysteria in the West are being conducted because of the obvious escalation of tensions near our borders,” the MFA spokesperson said.

Hlaz also confirmed that the bilateral agenda was mentioned, including Minsk’s vision of a possible solution to the current situation in US-Belarus relations as well as the domestic political developments in Belarus in the run-up to the constitutional referendum.

“The interlocutor also voiced the traditional set of clichés on human rights issues. The Foreign Minister made it clear that our Western partners’ assessments of the situation in and around Belarus unfortunately continue to be based on false assumptions and remain far from reality,” said the Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

According to the State Department’s Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs, Donfried, in a phone conversation with Makiej raised the topics of “the worrying build-up of Russian troops in Belarus and the ongoing human rights violations by the Lukašenka regime.”