The message from the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has been conveyed to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres. This occurred during a meeting between the Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN, Valentin Rybakov, and the UN Secretary-General on May 18, as reported to BELTA by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus.

The message from the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has been conveyed to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres. This occurred during a meeting between the Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN, Valentin Rybakov, and the UN Secretary-General on May 18, as reported to BELTA by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus.

The message is generally dedicated to the theme of European and international security against the backdrop of current events in Ukraine.

Touching upon the historical context in the message, the Head of State emphasized that devastating wars have repeatedly swept across Belarusian lands, sowing horrific destruction and causing immense casualties. It is precisely this tragic historical experience, as noted by the President of Belarus, that has predetermined the enduring value of a peace-loving foreign policy for our country.

Indeed, Belarus has always advocated for the strengthening of global and regional security, as evidenced by numerous Belarusian initiatives, such as the initiative known as "Helsinki-2," on the need for broad international dialogue on security.

A significant portion of the message is devoted to an analysis of the events in Ukraine. For instance, the Head of State recalls Belarus's efforts to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014-2015, as well as the initial stages of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which took place on the territory of our country earlier this year.

"The President clearly states in the message that Belarus is not an aggressor, as many in the West try to portray us. But we are not traitors either. Honesty and integrity in relations are important for our country," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized.

The Head of State outlines specific steps that everyone, in their respective roles, can take today to end the conflict and prevent it from escalating into a global war. The priority among these is to refrain from arms supplies, information wars, and various provocations.

The President of Belarus, naturally, could not overlook the role of the UN in conflict resolution. In particular, he welcomed the recent meetings of the UN Secretary-General in Kyiv and Moscow, while at the same time calling on the head of the United Nations to organise substantive contacts with other parties involved in the conflict – the USA and other Western countries. The Head of State once again stressed the importance of organising a global and decisive security process involving all leading international players in the spirit of San Francisco, thereby drawing parallels with the place where the UN Charter was signed in 1945.

In his message, the President of Belarus assured the UN Secretary-General that Belarus is ready for direct meetings and other steps to ensure peace and opportunities for life and development for future generations.

António Guterres, at a meeting with Valentin Rybakov, informed about the UN's efforts to address the issue of food security and the potential threat of global hunger.

It is known that the UN Secretary-General is already actively involved in this process. In particular, António Guterres, speaking at the UN Security Council in early May, spoke about the need to reintegrate food and fertilisers from Belarus and Russia into global markets to mitigate the growing problem of food insecurity in the world. During the UN Security Council meeting on food insecurity, the UN Secretary-General again drew the attention of the world community to this issue and called for the lifting of restrictions on fertilisers from Belarus and Russia.

BELTA has obtained the text of the President of Belarus's message to the UN Secretary-General. We present it in full.

President of the Republic of Belarus

Minsk, 8 May 2022

Your Excellency,

More than 30 years have passed since the end of the Cold War, which many associated with the advent of universal peace and prosperity. Back in distant 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it seemed to most people that the threat of a third global conflict had passed forever.

Unfortunately, today, for all of us inhabitants of the Earth, there is no more important issue than preventing a global war and establishing lasting and durable peace.

For the people of the Republic of Belarus, war is not just a word. For many centuries, devastating and destructive wars have repeatedly swept across Belarusian lands, sowing horrific destruction and causing immense human casualties.

Belarusians, more than any other nation, have experienced all the hardships and deprivations of the First (1914-1918) and Second World Wars (1939-1945). In the fight against Nazism, Belarus lost every third inhabitant.

The origins and causes of each of the world wars may seem different at first glance. However, each of them serves as an example of how the pursuit of unilateral benefits and advantages, the desire for sole dominance, the wish to strengthen one's security at the expense of other peoples, the refusal to respect and consider the legitimate interests of other nations, and the rejection of dialogue and negotiations can escalate to global proportions, proving destructive for all.

The tragic experience of history has predetermined the enduring value of a peace-loving foreign policy for Belarus, and the building of good-neighbourly relations from the very first days of the independent Belarusian state's existence.

Today, unfortunately, the world is forgetting that Belarus has never posed a threat to any of its neighbours.

The Republic of Belarus has always advocated and consistently advocates for strengthening regional and global security based on the principles of common responsibility and indivisibility of security, for the consistent strengthening of strategic stability through the implementation and development of multilateral regimes for the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, disarmament, arms control, for the prohibition of new types of weapons of mass destruction, and for the observance and further development of confidence- and security-building measures at the regional and sub-regional levels. Evidence of this is provided not only by Belarusian diplomatic initiatives within the UN and OSCE but also by concrete practical steps.

Consistently being a donor of regional and global security, the Republic of Belarus became the first state to voluntarily, and without preconditions, renounce the possession of nuclear weapons left after the collapse of the USSR.

Subsequently, our country has consistently advocated for the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free space in Central and Eastern Europe. Belarus has taken a principled stance against the expansion of NATO, which lost its defensive nature after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Belarus is a responsible member of the CSTO, a regional collective security defence organisation.

In recent years, Belarus has repeatedly pointed out in all available formats the continuous degradation of global and European regional security systems. To counteract this, Belarus put forward an initiative to resume a broad international dialogue on strengthening confidence-building measures, security and cooperation in Europe ("Helsinki-2"), proposed the formation of a sub-regional "digital good neighbourliness belt" and other initiatives.

Unfortunately, in principle, we have not been heard. The security architecture in Europe has failed. The unwillingness of Western countries to work towards strengthening common and indivisible security, their disrespect for legitimate interests and disregard for the concerns of other partners, primarily Russia, first resulted in trade, economic and information wars, and then provoked a hot conflict in the territory of Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine is a war at our doorstep! Given the territorial proximity and common historical past with Ukraine, Belarus is sincerely interested in the soonest possible settlement of the situation in that country. As Ukraine's neighbours, we are concerned about the future of regional security and the guarantees of Belarus's national security. It is impossible to resolve these issues without our participation, as well as without the participation of the countries of the region.

We are not aggressors, as some states try to portray us. Belarus has never initiated any wars or conflicts. But we are not traitors either. Honesty and integrity in relationships are important to us. Our position is that the concerns and interests of any country, whether it is one-eighth of the landmass or an island state, must be heard by all!

That is precisely why Belarus sincerely and consistently remains committed to the task of prompt reconciliation. Only by extinguishing the hotbed of confrontation can we begin to build a new post-conflict world order that takes into account the interests of all states.

We do not just state this; we have proven it in the past and continue to prove it through concrete actions by the Belarusian leadership.

It is sufficient to recall Belarus's constant efforts to facilitate the settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014-2015. As a result, in 2015, the well-known Minsk agreements were signed in Belarus.

And now, in 2022, it was Belarus that was able to initiate negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations on our territory.

It does not matter where the negotiations will continue, as now is not the time to claim credit for peacemaking. At this moment, every reasonable person and politician should think not about their own benefit and possible dividends, but about the swift conclusion of peace on terms acceptable to all parties to the conflict.

Under the current circumstances, we must do everything possible to find ways to de-escalate global confrontation and bring closer the prospect of a large-scale resolution of security issues, both in Ukraine and other hotspots, including Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, and in the world as a whole.

All wars eventually end. Sooner or later, the question will arise for all of us: "What will we do next and how will we emerge from the ruins we inherit?" This applies, first and foremost, to the security system and multilateral diplomacy.

The resolution of the Ukrainian conflict is today a key security issue in Europe, without the long-term and just settlement of which the world will remain under threat not only on our continent but also on a broader scale. All global development goals will also remain under threat. The immutable truth is: no peace – no development.

In conditions of global interdependence, it is impossible to ensure food security and a clean environment, combat pandemics or climate change in one's own corner of the world without universal multilateral efforts.

The conflict in Ukraine, its root causes, and the current sanctions imposed by the West against Russia are already bringing their destructive consequences to the world, manifesting in various regions as an unprecedented rise in prices for food, energy, fertilizers, air and sea transport, and a reduction in aid to countries most in need in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. All this threatens hunger, a decline in living standards, and an exacerbation of economic and social tensions, primarily in the least developed countries, and collectively could trigger a new wave of mass migration.

In this regard, Belarus calls on the countries of the world to unite and prevent the escalation of a regional conflict in Europe into a full-scale world war!

Together and each in their own role, we can do a lot today: refrain from supplying weapons, from information warfare and any provocations, from fanning misanthropic rhetoric in the media, from encouraging racism and discrimination based on national, cultural, linguistic and religious affiliation, from legalising and sending mercenaries. We must jointly oppose restrictive trade measures.

It is necessary to abandon the destruction of the UN and multilateral cooperation mechanisms, which is what the current policy of restricting participation or even excluding individual countries from their work leads to. Unfortunately, we see that the UN may soon repeat the unenviable fate of the League of Nations.

It is in our interest to prevent the conflict from becoming protracted with devastating consequences for sustainable development. I believe that such an outcome will only be possible when specific legal arrangements and their surrounding political context, including within the UN, ensure the real consideration of the security interests and concerns of both the conflicting parties and all other interested parties, small and large countries, global and regional players. Such an outcome is unattainable with absenteeism or abstention!

Here, in my opinion, it is appropriate to recall the quote of a famous son of the Belarusian people, our outstanding countryman, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Andrei Gromyko, who said that ten years of negotiations are better than one day of war. We share this approach and consider it to have lost none of its relevance in today's extremely complex realities.

Belarus is confident that in the palette of possible peaceful and inclusive initiatives that would facilitate negotiations between all interested parties, you, Your Excellency, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, could play a unique, impartial role.

We believe that you are capable of taking a truly strategic peacekeeping position, based on the principle of indivisible security. We have followed your recent meetings in Moscow and Kyiv with hope. At the same time, we expect meaningful contacts from you with all parties involved in the conflict. After all, frankly speaking, everyone in the world understands perfectly well that forces aspiring to sole leadership in a globalized world are fighting against Russia on the territory of Ukraine, using Ukrainian soldiers and "to the last Ukrainian".

This may be the moment of truth for the UN, for which we have preserved and developed this organisation for almost 8 decades. It is possible that, given the damage that disrespect and disregard for the interests of partners have already caused to multilateral institutions and trust between states, the time has come not even for "Helsinki-2", but for a truly global and defining process involving all leading international players in the spirit of San Francisco. The outcome of this process should be clear and transparent agreements on the rules of a new world order that will ensure security guarantees for all members of the international community for the foreseeable future.

Belarus will always advocate for the promotion of a unifying agenda in all international formats. We are open to broad cooperation with all states, integration structures and international organisations.

Belarus is ready for direct meetings and any other work with each interested party to ensure peace and opportunities for life and development for future generations!

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Alexander Lukashenko

Source: belta,by