June 23 Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh declined to comment on the situation with the detention of the Swedish ambassador during the crackdown of the protest on June 22. "We have no official information on the subject, so we cannot speak about the detention," he said.
«In any case, such incidents are resolved based on two principles: first, the privileges of diplomats, granted to them under the Vienna Convention, are undoubtful, and secondly, the diplomats in the host countries are obliged respect the laws of those countries,» said Andrei Savinykh, the MFA said.
Press Secretary also congratulated Maira Moore and Andres Herkel on their appointments as the head of the EU office in Minsk and the new PACE Rapporteur on Belarus, respectively. «Belarus is aimed at constructive and equal dialogue with these organizations. We’d like to congratulate the High Representative on this appointment and to assure that the Belarusian side will do its best to ensure that our cooperation would developed in a constructive way,» he said.
Andrei Savinykh also urged the EU partners to «restart the normal constructive dialogue, which is possible only in conditions of mutual respect and fairness.» According to him, this condition is «the key to solving all disputes and problems.»
«Belarus has never initiated an escalation of tensions in our relationship. We’ll do our utmost to bring the situation back into the legal mainstream of normal interaction and cooperation. However, if necessary, we may take retaliatory steps. In the event of any solutions you will be informed,» said a spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.
