Right of Reply to Belarus on the Invocation of the Vienna Mechanism on Belarus
As delivered by Chargé d’Affaires Courtney Austrian
to the Permanent Council, Vienna
November 4, 2021
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to echo my Canadian colleague’s hope that we are moving to a place where we can have a constructive dialogue. As I noted in my remarks, it is unfortunate that we no longer have our Public Affairs Section or our USAID offices in Minsk, because these were opportunities for dialogue.
It is my profound hope that we will be able to use either the Moscow Mechanism from last year or the Vienna Mechanism from this year to actually engage in a meaningful dialogue.
I would also like to respond briefly to the idea that we are attempting to interfere in domestic affairs. My comment to that one is that Belarus, like the rest of us, freely signed up to the OSCE commitments in the Human Dimension, and it is important that we all live up to these obligations — and that applies to all 57 of us.
Thank you very much.
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