Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus S. Aleinik at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly
25.09.2023
TOP 10 quotes from the speech of Minister Sergei Aleinik at the UN General Assembly (September 23, 2023, New York):
1. The United Nations may suffer the same fate as the League of Nations if it remains a passive observer. The UN should not wait, but act!
2. It is necessary to stop ostracism as a practice in the UN. The practice goes against the Organization’s very essence! After all, according to the UN Charter, all its Members are equal! No one should stoop to insults and disrespectful language, for instance, by using the word “regime” in relation to Member States’ legitimate authorities.
3. Individual Member States must cease their attempts to turn the United Nations and its affiliated organizations into their foreign policy tool. Making the Organization a politicized entity only serves to discredit it in the eyes of ordinary people across the globe.
4. There is enough food for everyone in the world. At the same time, millions of people around the world are starving. This “contradiction” resulted from unilateral sanctions that Western states imposed, in violation of the UN Charter, against some countries they disliked.
5. The sanctions, in turn, constrained exports of fertilizers and food to developing countries that needed them most. Therefore, the global food crisis is a man-made, not a systemic one. If that is the case, it is easy to resolve, because it only requires removing the artificial barriers.
6. The unilateral coercive measures imposed by the West directly or indirectly against virtually all states in the rest of the world must be lifted immediately! This is what both common sense and common interests of all people around the world urgently demand!
7. The Council does not reflect today's geopolitical realities. The expansion of the permanent membership through the inclusion of some large developing nations from Asia, Africa and Latin America is the imperative of our time. It is hearting to see that China and Russia support this kind of the Council reform, as they have repeatedly stated. We urge the Security Council’s other three permanent members to recognize the new realities and to agree to reflect them in a renewed organ.
8. Provided we all are keen to make life on the planet safer and better — as has been constantly stated from this rostrum – we have no choice other than engaging in dialogue and negotiating with each other. The Head of the Belarusian state invariably emphasizes the importance of organizing such a dialogue in the spirit of San Francisco. Indeed, the San Francisco conference gave life to our Organization and a hope to the whole world for a better future. We need the same hope today!
9. Belarus cannot but speak about the conflict in a neighboring country – Ukraine. It is truly unbearable for us to see the suffering of the kindred people. Unfortunately, Ukraine and its people have become a bargaining chip in the “Great Game” played by the West in its quest for preserving global hegemony. Clearly, by ratcheting up arms supplies to the country, the West has set itself for the task of carrying on the war at the cost of the last Ukrainian.
10. Belarus, for its part, has always stood for peace in Ukraine and has undertaken all necessary measures to seek this end.
As the President of Belarus has pointed out, we still stand ready to do everything in our power.
