Belarusian Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhankou explained the reason for the closure of the Belarusian embassy in Finland. A TASS correspondent asked about the reasons for the decision.
“Because it is unnecessary”, the diplomat replied.
The decision to close the embassy from Sept. 1 was previously made by the Council of Ministers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was instructed to take the necessary measures to terminate the diplomatic mission’s operations.
The Belarusian embassy in Finland has been operating since 2011.
It should be recalled that after European countries imposed sanctions on him in 2021, Aliaksandr Lukashenka called for a review of the location of Belarusian diplomatic missions abroad. In particular, he proposed reducing the staff of Belarusian diplomatic missions in Europe. He also advocated optimizing Belarusian embassies in the EU by opening diplomatic missions instead in countries in Africa and Asia.
In 2021, Belarus had already closed its embassy in Canada. In 2023, the embassy in Slovakia was closed, but it was reopened in 2025 after Robert Fico came to power in that country.
