MINSK, 19 August (BelTA) – Belarus has decided to suspend the Belarus-U.S. projects to exchange highly enriched nuclear fuel, Andrei Savinykh, Chief of the Information Office of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus, told BelTA when asked about Belarus’ retaliatory measures in response to the US sanctions. “The new U.S. economic sanctions go against the spirit of cooperation and teamwork. In these conditions, Belarus has decided to freeze the projects to exchange highly enriched nuclear fuel developed together with the U.S. as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative. The MBA project at the Belarusian State University will be suspended, too,” Andrei Savinykh said. However, Belarus will remain committed to its international non-proliferation obligations. Andrei Savinykh underlined that Belarus condemns the U.S. economic restrictions against it as ungrounded and unjustified. “These are politically charged decisions which contradict the international commitments of the United States,” he said. “The move by the U.S. is a blatant violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that banned the U.S. from using economic duress against Belarus. The U.S. broke the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act that binds all the states “to refrain from all kinds of economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by another participating State of the rights inherent in its sovereignty”, Andrei Savinykh said. The U.S. actions also contradict the UN General Assembly Resolution 62/183 that sets forth that “no state can either exert or encourage unilateral economic, political or any other measures aimed at subordinating another state which exercises its sovereign rights”. The official representative of the Belarus Foreign Ministry said that Belarus might reciprocate. In his view, if the United States stops using economic coercion against Belarus and restores the normal relations, the cooperation on these projects will be resumed. БЕЛТА
Written by belta.by
