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Foreign Minister Makey tells UN General Assembly that sanctions should not be imposed on Belarus and Cuba because of their political systems

The political system of Belarus and Cuba should not be used to justify sanctions against these countries, Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey on Saturday, speaking during the general debate of the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The policy of sanctions against Belarus, Cuba and a number of other countries is illegal from the standpoint of international law, Mr. Makey stressed, according to the Belarusian foreign ministry's press office.

Mr. Makey noted that the modern world was highly diverse and so were the political systems of different countries. History shows that it is impossible to tar everybody with the same brush, he said, adding that it was necessary to evaluate the "content" rather than the "form" of a state. A "strong" state is a state that pursues responsible domestic and foreign policies, he said.

Mr. Makey emphasized that calls for a "strong" state had nothing to do with dictatorship.

According to him, the main problem facing humanity is the fact that social development is not keeping up with the pace of globalization. "We're constantly running late and our inability to adapt quickly and efficiently generates a multitude of problems, political, economic and social," Mr. Makey said. "We need a mechanism that would allow us to deal with this dilemma promptly and efficiently. It would be more appropriate to call it a new global order."

Mr. Makey noted the need to draw up a comprehensive post-2015 UN development agenda, especially in the areas that were not covered by the Millennium Development Goals, such as migration, energy, employment. He said that these goals should be achieved with the help of global partnerships. Mr. Makey cited the example of a "global partnership against slavery and human trafficking" proposed by Alyaksandr Lukashenka in 2005. //BelaPAN