MINSK. Jan 28 (Interfax) - Belarus seeks equal and close interaction with the United States and hopes that an ambassador to the U.S. will be nominated shortly, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said.
"We have always said that we seek equal, fruitful, close and constructive interaction with the United States. We understand the role the United States has been playing in the world," Makei told reporters on Thursday.
However, Belarus and the United States have slightly different ideas of cooperation priorities, he said. "Considering that some of our Western partners do not have an impartial view of the processes unfolding in Belarus, we do not rule out the appearance of certain difficulties in establishing normal relations with the United States," he said.
Minsk is working on the nomination of a new ambassador to the U.S. "There are a number of candidates. We will present our proposals for consideration to the chief of state. I think we will choose a candidate in the near future," Makei said.
Minsk is interested in "having such an important communication channel as the presence of ambassadors in both countries," he said.
"We are interested in the arrival of the U.S. ambassador in Belarus, and we are also interested in the prompt posting of our ambassador to the U.S.," Makei said.
Belarus has noticed certain positive developments in the field of security after the accession of the new U.S. administration to office, Makei said. "First of all, I mean contacts between Russia and the U.S. regarding the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the ongoing discussion on the Open Skies Treaty. All of that inspires certain cautious optimism. We support efforts of the kind, which will contribute to greater stability and security," he said.
Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Kravchenko, who was appointed ambassador to Belarus in July 2020, died suddenly in December. He died in Belarus before he had the chance to leave for the United States and begin his ambassadorial mission.
Following the diplomatic scandal of 2008, Minsk and Washington recalled their ambassadors and capped the staff of their diplomatic missions to the minimum. Later on, the level of diplomatic representation was downgraded from ambassador to charge d'affaires ad interim.
The decision of Minsk and Washington to restore diplomatic representation on the ambassadorial level was announced at a meeting between Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale on September 17, 2020.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said later that Minsk had lifted the restrictions on the size of the U.S. diplomatic presence in Belarus.
In early May 2020, then U.S. President Donald Trump formally nominated Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Julie Fischer for ambassador to Belarus. The candidate was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 16. Fischer is expected to take the position, which has been vacant since 2008, in the near future. The exact date of her arrival in Minsk has not been reported so far.
Earlier, Fischer served as the U.S. charge d'affaires ad interim in Russia, oversaw EU and Western Europe issues in the Department of State, was a deputy chief of the U.S. mission to NATO, and a political and economic advisor at the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi.