Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus M.Ryzhenkov at the 19th Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (October 15, 2025, Kampala, Uganda)

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Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus M.Ryzhenkov at the 19th Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (October 15, 2025, Kampala, Uganda)

Excellencies,

I would like to start by extending high appreciation to the Government of the Republic of Uganda for convening the ministerial meeting and, personally, to my dear friend Honorable General Abubakhar Jeje Odongo for hosting us in Kampala.

We have gathered today to discuss how to deepen our cooperation for the wellbeing of the NAM countries, as the topic of the Ministerial meeting calls for. It is both relevant and urgent.

We all bear in mind that our countries joined the Movement to promote peace, development and justice in the world. For nearly sixty-five years we consistently have been promoting multilateralism and solidarity on the basis of mutual respect and equality. As a result, we managed to grow into a significant force - a power centre that others today have to reckon with. In this regard our strong concerted voice is increasingly important in a current disorderly world.

This disorder resulted from disregard by some alliances for the norms and principles of the United Nations Charter that underpin international law, which NAM countries always adhered to. It's a paradox. Because the countries from such alliances, which mostly belonged to the former colonial powers, were to stick to their commitments to fully comply with the international obligations. But they didn't even try to do that. They also are responsible for being profited enormously from colonialism by plundering other nations - not just economically but also culturally. How is it that in order to see the full beauty of the cultural heritage of former colonies, you have to visit the Western countries?

In this regard Belarus welcomes a move by many African countries to claim reparations from the West for its colonial oppression, as well as publicly voiced at the general debate of current session of the UN General Assembly. We support this initiative viewing it as an indispensable part of full decolonization, which is urgently needed as the former colonial powers are still pursuing their colonial practices in political, economic, humanitarian, cultural and other spheres in order to restore their dominance in the world.

Politically, neo-colonialism finds expression in military interventions, interference in domestic affairs, colour revolutions and unconstitutional change of Governments.

Economically, it is manifested in the instrumentalization of economy through unilateral coercive measures, trade and financial blockades, unjustified tariffs against the NAM-countries. I will not list the countries that are under the greatest pressure. My friend, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela listed them in his speech. We are all at risk. All these methods aim at restraining sustainable development of our countries.

Culturally, we mostly associate it with the "brain drain" - an outflow of our talent and skills to the West, where they fall victim to the policies of a false multiculturalism, which brings about violence and degradation in reality. On the contrary, NAM is built, inter alia, on the basis of recognition of cultural diversity of its members. In this regard we are united.

What is also alarming is that nowadays neo-colonialism is increasingly gaining traction in specific emerging topics, which are high on the UN agenda, like artificial intelligence, climate change, where the former colonial powers seek to impose their egoistic politicized agenda.

What should be our best collective responses to these challenges?

The first one is to scale up our efforts in own economic interaction. Indeed, NAM was conceived as a political entity as a matter of priority. But we deem it's high time to bring the issue of economy to the NAM agenda. Sustainable ties in our mutually beneficial trade will make NAM stronger politically and less dependent on the West, unlike it was in the past. We can succeed here, because, after all, collectively, we have everything we need - natural, financial and human resources, technologies, markets. For instance, Belarus, which retained all its technologies after the collapse of the Soviet Union, expanded and significantly developed them, now is ready to share them in the fields of industry, agriculture and construction, as well as IT-sector. Hence, we as NAM need to significantly deepen cooperation in economic and trade fields among each other and galvanize our political will to this end.

Secondly, the Non-Aligned countries need to harness the potential of the emerging powerful regional entities - BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Eurasian Economic Union, ASEAN, African Union, Mercosur and others. We must vigorously work to strengthen these entities and forge partnerships among them.

Thirdly, NAM is part of a broader phenomenon of international life called the Global Majority. It is not opposed to any one but to unite us all in building a fair multipolar world order. And the Western alliances are not exclusion. They have to understand that cooperation with the Global Majority, and NAM, in particular, - is not an option. It's an urgent need for them to avoid self-isolation. It will be a win-win situation if we all learn to work together in full respect for justice and international obligations, as well as political, economic, social and cultural diversity of countries and peoples, as envisaged in the UN Charter.

Only together through cooperation and understanding we will be able to build a new just and peaceful world!
Thank you.

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