Foreign Minister Martynaw attacks USA’s conduct in his speech at UN debate

Foreign Minister Syarhey Martynaw lashed out at the United States over its conduct in the international arena while speaking at the September 28 afternoon session of the UN General Asembly’s annual high-level debate.

“I would like to draw the attention of the General Assembly to a particular issue - the abuse by the United States of the rights of the world reserve currency manager and the deliberate creation of obstacles for the lawful economic activity of legitimate companies and banks from countries which are disagreeable to the United States,” the Belarusian minister said. “It is an alarm signal for the whole international community.”

“By ‘appointing’ states at will as pleasing and unpleasing, ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ the United States creates an atmosphere of suppression of dissent and diversity in international relations,” Mr. Martynaw said. “This does not just bring ideology and politicking into international relations. It is an act of confrontation – with every one and each one who dares to have an independent opinion, who has the courage to pursue an independent foreign policy.”

“The majority in this hall are Member States of the Non-Aligned Movement,” the minister said. “They are non-aligned to confrontation. Five decades ago the creation of the Movement was a protest against confrontation and a global response to the global challenge of confrontation. Today it is in our power to stop confrontation and to reject solutions it seeks to impose. Tomorrow belongs to the positive ideas and actions, to the engagement and cooperation for peace, in the common interest of the entire international community.”

Mr. Martynaw noted that Belarus “rejects the use of unilateral coercive measures in international relations as an instrument of political and economic pressure on sovereign states.” “These measures not only contradict the principles of the UN Charter and international law, but they breed alienation among countries, distrust and hostility. We deal with simply absurd facts when economic sanctions are imposed under the pretext of promotion of the rights of workers, yet ultimately they lead to job losses,” he said. “By applying unilateral coercive measures of economic pressure, including exterritorialy, the well known world centre of power assumes de facto the rights of the Security Council. We all witnessed this during the current debate in the General Assembly.”

Mr. Martynaw criticized “some countries” for what he called “the unacceptable practice of using the process of accession to the WTO as a convenient instrument of pressure on candidate countries, and not only economic – to receive forced and unilateral additional benefit from the WTO expansion – but political as well.”

“The United Nations must pronounce itself forcefully in favor of establishing – with participation of all interested states – fair conditions for WTO accession which take into account trade and financial needs of the joining countries, their real development needs,” he said.