SERGEI ALEINIK, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belarus, stated that the Ukrainian people “have become a pawn in the great game of the West to preserve its own global hegemony”.  By increasing weapons deliveries to Ukraine, he said, the West is determined to continue this war of attrition down to the last Ukrainian.  However, Ukraine does not need or want this.  Belarus “has always supported peace” in its neighbouring country and “has taken all possible measures”.  His Government continues to “be prepared to do everything” in its power towards this end.

Noting a “power shift from the West to the rest of the world”, he stated that “the best way” to keep this process on a peaceful track is to expand the Security Council’s permanent membership.  With three of the five permanent members representing the West, the Council does not reflect today’s political realities, he stressed. These members are “not interested in changing the world’s status quo”, and the Council does not fulfil its functions to support international peace and security as a result.  He called for major developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America to be included as permanent members.  Moreover, he urged Member States to “stop the policy of ostracism” in the UN with insults and disrespectful rhetoric, such as “using the word regime to describe legitimate Governments of Member States”.  All members are equal according to the UN Charter, he emphasized, appealing members to treat each other respectfully and equitably. He also called for “certain countries” to refrain from trying to restrict the participation of other Member States in the work of the United Nations, which he characterized as a direct violation of the UN Charter.

Furthermore, he underscored that certain Member States must cease attempts to turn the United Nations and its entities into a tool serving their foreign policy, because “politicizing the UN only discredits it in the eyes of ordinary people”.  The Organization was created for cooperation and the interests of people, “not for settling scores between States”.  He stressed that “bilateral issues should not be dragged into international organizations as an apple of discord.” In particular, to resolve the global food crisis, he urged the West to lift unilateral illegal sanctions against countries not desirable to them or to obtain any competitive economic advantage. These sanctions, he said, “limit the export of food and fertilizer to developing countries which need them.”  Common sense and the common interests of all people demands the removal of unilateral coercive measures imposed by the West, directly or indirectly against virtually all other States.