Ryzhenkov proposed to study the issues of the legal vacuum in the military-political sphere

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Maxim Ryzhenkov addressed the participants of the International Forum for Collective Security with a proposal to study the problems of destroying military and political tools at the regional and global levels. This proposal he made during his speech at the plenary session of the forum on November 10 in Moscow, writes sb.by.

Maxim Ryzhenkov stated that there are no effectively functioning mechanisms in the field of arms control. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, the Treaty on Open Skies, the Russian-American Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms simply do not work.

- This significantly reduces the level of trust in each other and opens up opportunities for further escalation, primarily by our Western partners. The current situation also creates conditions for the spiral of an arms race. This can be seen along the perimeter of our border, how qualitatively and on a large scale our neighbors are arming themselves: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia. NATO forces are constantly present in the Baltic States, up to 30,000 people. We constantly hear calls from our Baltic neighbors to increase the contingent of both NATO and the United States on their territory, to produce additional weapons and equipment compatible with weapons, he said.

The Republic of Belarus, as the most peaceful state that experienced all the horrors of war in the twentieth century, understands the complexity of the situation.

- Our President constantly comes up with relevant (peaceful) initiatives related to increasing trust with neighbors and blocs of states. Unfortunately, we are not heard much, but it is our small response to what is happening around us. So the question is, how do we avoid a legal vacuum in this area? We think that during the plenary sessions that will be held at today’s forum, this topic will also be thoroughly worked out.

And, of course, we would like relevant proposals, including those for the future, to become part of the agreements that sooner or later (we are sure) will be reached within the framework of the Russian-Ukrainian settlement.

Because this topic will be one of the key, at least in our regional context, he said. Ryzhenkov: the erosion of international law and the crisis of UN institutions is the first issue of international security