Belarus can play the role of a mediator in resolving the Russian-Ukrainian war. This was stated by Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov at a joint press conference with the head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Maksim Ryzhankou after a meeting of the boards of the foreign policy agencies of the two countries.
“We see countries that can play a constructive role as mediators — these include Belarus and Turkey, which President Putin discussed in recent days with President Erdoğan, who is also interested in helping to create a platform,” Lavrov said.
The Russian minister recalled that in 2022 negotiations had already taken place on a Belarusian platform. Lavrov also noted the positive role of Belarus during the so-called Minsk Process in the middle of the previous decade. At the same time, he doubts the possibility of reviving the Minsk format as such due to the position of European countries.
“Therefore, we will be ready to see Belarus among the countries that help the cause. At the same time, President Lukashenka has repeatedly said that for Belarus this has not some sort of moral or political significance, but practical significance, since Belarus is a neighboring country to us and to Ukraine as well. And how security issues will be resolved will primarily determine how Belarus itself will feel.
We fully take into account the interests of our ally when we move to practical matters and the practical consideration of various ideas. So I will probably stop here. There is much that can be said on this topic, but… A new Minsk Process.
The Minsk Process consisted of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine with the mediation of France and Germany, as they see it. Well, now there can be no talk at all of any consistent mediation by France and Germany. Among mediators, as I said, we value the position of Belarus, the position of Turkey. We value the position of Hungary, which is ready to host a Russia–US summit that President Trump proposed to hold in Budapest.
And, of course, we value the position of the United States, which is the only one among the leaders of the Western world — unlike London, Brussels, Paris, and Berlin — showing initiative in finding ways to resolve the conflict. We appreciate this. I repeat once again and particularly underline that in Trump’s initiative in this regard, which we saw in the text of eight points that we have — we have not seen another version — the most important thing is that it reflects the key understandings of the summit in Alaska.” Lavrov said.