Comment of the Head of the Department of Information – Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, D.Mironchik, in relation to the closing of Israeli and Belarusian Embassies in Minsk and Tel Aviv

07-01-2016

The common diplomatic practice is to take an adequate response to the closing of an Embassy. Unfortunately, we are obliged to confirm that due to Israel’s decision to close its Embassy in Minsk, Belarus, guided by the principle of mutuality, has to take a range of measures to complete the activity of its Diplomatic Mission in Tel Aviv.

We believe that Israeli side made a mistake by ignoring the fact that the two countries are connected by fates of thousands of people for whom Israel and Belarus are close and native states, as well as generally positive dynamics of bilateral cooperation in different spheres.

In 2003 our Israeli partners had already taken similar wrong step and in less than a year realized a necessity to remedy the situation.

We are confident that the maintenance of Belarus-Israel relations at the level of Embassies is an objective necessity and the renewal of their activity is a matter of time.