Minsk - The Belarusian Foreign Ministry holds that the foreign minister of any country should fully enjoy the freedom of contact with foreign partners.
“From the point of view of common sense, the foreign minister of any country should have full freedom to contact any partners – it’s the essence of diplomatic activity, to organize cooperation under any circumstances”, the ministry’s press secretary Andrei Savinykh has told Interfax.
“It remains to be seen how our Western vis-a-vis understand this,” he said, when asked to comment on the fact that the country’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Vladimir Makey is among the Belarusian officials on whom EU sanctions have been imposed.
Makey, President Alexander Lukashenko’s former chief of staff, is among 243 officials who are barred fro entering the EU over the suppression of post-election opposition protests in Minsk in December 2010.
Makey replaced Sergei Martynov, who was dismissed on Monday after holding the foreign minister’s office since March 2003.
