On May 14, Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Dapkiunas met with the delegation of the United Nations Secretariat led by the Director of Europe and Central Asia Division, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations of the UN Secretariat, Levent Bilman.
During the meeting, Andrey Dapkiunas drew the delegates’ attention to the initiatives of Belarus on peace in the region; in turn, Levent Bilman highly appreciated its role in organizing the negotiation process to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
The sides discussed the prospects for expanding Belarus’ participation in the UN peacekeeping operations, and also touched upon a number of issues regarding the possibilities for deepening cooperation between Belarus and the UN in other areas of activity, the press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry reports.
Belarus has a company of peacekeepers; 100 soldiers were trained abroad and now they are ready to serve ‘in every region of the world’, Defense Minister Andrey Raukou said in 2018. But the country has never used the peacekeepers or international military missions.
Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka and top military officials have repeatedly declared readiness to send peacekeepers to the demarcation line in Donbas, if such an agreement is reached with Russian and Ukrainian side.
However, a number of Ukrainian politicians believe that Belarusian peacekeepers may become Vladimir Putin’s Trojan horse in Donbas.
