Moscow: Belarus on Thursday blamed the migrant crisis on its borders in the European Union and accused the block of refusing talks about steps to strengthen the border.
“We will be interested in the crisis resolved as soon as possible,” Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Madii told Russian news agency Ria Novosti in an interview.
Makei appointed the EU decision last year to stop financing projects in Belarus to strengthen the border infrastructure and build shelters for illegal migrants.
The move came when Western countries imposed a series of sanctions against Belarus for crackdown against opposition.
In response, Minsk suspended the reception agreement with Brussels, who needed Belarus to take back migrants who crossed their territory to the EU.
“We offer the European Union to conduct consultations on this issue, but rejected,” Madius said.
“Since then, we have proposed to start a dialogue about this many times, but has not received a positive answer.” Migrants have tried to cross the border of Belarus-Poland for months but the crisis reached a new level when hundreds made a shared effort this week and was pushed back by the Polish border guards.
Western government accused Belarusian Strongman Alexander Lukashenko lured them to his country and sent them to cross to members of the Polish European Union in retaliation for sanctions.
Poland has accused Minsk “state terrorism” because it uses intimidation to force migrants to violate the border.
Belarus in turn accused Poland violating international norms by blocking migrants and defeating them with violence.
Caught in between, migrants – especially from the Middle East – stuck in frozen conditions.
Minsk and Ally Moscow blamed the Western military intervention there because provoking the migrant crisis.
Maki said in the interview that the crisis was the result of “European Union policy related to the destruction of the state in a number of countries.” He said that Belarus would do “the most decisive steps” to prevent conflict on the border.