Ryzhenkov in the UN harshly characterized the politics and politicians of the European Union

At the general discussion on “Rebuilding Trust, Managing Transformation: A UN Working for All” held on September 26 at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov harshly characterized the policy of the West, drawing historical parallels and remembering what happened in the world during the Cold War.

- In 1945, in San Francisco, at the founding conference of the United Nations, US President Harry Truman said words that today sound like a prophecy: “No matter how great our strength, we must deny ourselves the right to always do as we please.” If all those with great power acted as Truman said, we would avoid many wars and conflicts. But, unfortunately, the desire to live at the expense of others remained the main narrative of the development of the collective West.

During the Cold War era, the balance of power was ensured by a system of checks and balances between two opposing political systems, he added:

- But since the 1990s, when that equilibrium collapsed, the politics of unfettered supremacy have grown rapidly. And in recent years, this policy has reached its climax: Western countries have actually trampled on international law and began to force everyone to act on the basis of so-called “rules”, destroying undesirable countries, suppressing recalcitrant peoples. And these rules are like signs in a city they designed. The light is always green. Everyone else is red.

And the point is not in metaphors, Maxim Ryzhenkov noted, but in facts that are known to everyone:

Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Palestine — this is not the entire geography of countries that were or remain in the focus of greedy Western interest. Now add to that unfair global trade, where rules are written to suit the interests of multinational corporations. Illegal unilateral sanctions that strangle entire nations. And these trends are only intensifying. What about the UN? The organization has failed to resolve any serious conflict. Its role was often limited to expressions of concern, appeals to those who were affected. This, of course, leads to further escalation.

Maxim Ryzhenkov stressed that the policy of the leadership of the European Union, which through the unrestrained desire to preserve elusive dominance, is trying to hinder global stability and peacekeeping, is particularly alarming.

- And in achieving this goal, they are ready to sacrifice even the well-being of their own citizens, he added. Do the peoples of a united Europe desire some revenge over Russia, especially at the cost of their own impoverishment? Of course not. Do they want to be cannon fodder in the war that supposedly European politicians are preparing for 2030? Not either. And we know that. But in Brussels, someone really wants to play soldiers, to consolidate their greatness in history. But it's happened before, more than once. We know how it ended. Nevertheless, the West is already beginning to be questioned for centuries of plunder of colonies, for the destruction of cultures, traditions and identities of enslaved peoples, for the slave trade, which claimed millions of lives.

In this vein, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus noted, the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on declaring the trade in enslaved Africans and the racial enslavement of Africans a grave crime against humanity is consistent:

- Belarus did not hesitate to support the resolution. This is not just a diplomatic gesture; it is the voice of a country that has itself gone through a similar hell of history. We know what genocide is – a third of our population was killed in cold blood during the war, tortured by the “civilized” Europeans who were united by Hitler 85 years ago. Today, their descendants tell us that they have nothing to do with it, and neither did their grandfathers. Allegedly. But it was not the Fuehrer who set fire to the village house with Belarusian children, old men and women. And there were thousands of them. We know what plundering of cultural heritage means – our wealth, resources, works of art were exported to the West. Young people were forced into slavery in Europe. And today, under unprecedented sanctions, we again felt what it means to be targeted. That is why we support those who demand historical justice, including on the issue of reparations raised by the African Union, with a special feeling of friendship and brotherhood. But reparations are not just about finance. It's also respect for memory. It is a return to peoples of their own culture and history. How many other names remain on the world map that have erased the memory of millennia? A simple example: the great waterfall, which the people of Zimbabwe for centuries called Mosi-oa-Tunya – “thundering smoke”, the colonizers “discovered” 150 years ago and named after the queen, who never even visited Africa. Isn't that identity theft?

Western elites do not like the new multipolar world, in which their voice ceases to be decisive, concluded Maxim Ryzhenkov:

- But instead of adapting to positive change, they continue to instrumentalize instability. We in Belarus see this most clearly in the example of Ukraine. Does the EU want peace there? His goal is to inflict, as they say, a civilizational defeat on Russia. To weaken, humiliate, break and continue to live at the expense of Russian resources. But not at the cost of the lives of its citizens, but at the cost of the lives of ordinary Ukrainians. The same war benefits them. It allows us to create an image of an enemy, mobilize our own population under the pretext of a collective threat, write off the economic failures we see, justify militarization and, of course, enrich ourselves. That’s why we need conflict—managed, frozen, eternal.

If the West wants to take a worthy place in the emerging multipolar world, it needs to change, summed up Maxim Ryzhenkov:

- The future of our planet lies in cooperation, not confrontation. Of course, we will have to move on the global bench of international relations – and very seriously. It will be necessary to abandon the policy of neocolonialism, to forget about the self-isolation to which the EU condemns itself, creating a new iron curtain on the border with Belarus and Russia. What contribution Belarus makes to the creation of a new world, Ryzhenkov told in New York