PRESS CONFERENCE BY FOREIGN MINISTER OF BELARUS

2 October 1996

Press Briefing

19961002 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

At a Headquarters press conference today, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Uladzimir Syanko, said Belarus strongly opposed the deployment of nuclear arms in central Europe and particularly in close proximity to its borders -- in Poland, Czech Republic or Hungary. The creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone would contribute to more stability in Europe and in the world as a whole.

The Foreign Minister said that, during the General Assembly's fifty- first session the priorities for the Belarus delegation would be the problems of disarmament and the common economic development problems facing the countries with economies in transition. Those countries were in the process of creating democracies and were experiencing deep economic and social transformations. Reform of the United Nations and the Organization's financial crisis would also be the focus of his delegation's attention during the session. His participation in the Assembly's fifty-first session would afford him the opportunity to meet many of his counterparts and establish and broaden bilateral relations.

A correspondent asked if the statement on an initiative by Belarus to create a nuclear-weapon-free zone in central and eastern Europe, which had been distributed at the press conference, was different in any way from statements made by Belarus in previous years on that issue. Foreign Minister Syanko said that the idea of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Europe was not a new one. It had been proposed by some central European countries since the 1960s. Belarus and Ukraine, among others, were strongly in favour of creating such a zone in central Europe. Along with Ukraine, his Government planned to complete the withdrawal of nuclear armaments from its territory by the end of this year, as part of its effort to create a denuclearized zone in the continent.

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