Belarus strives for balanced foreign policy in 2017

MINSK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The efforts of Belarusian diplomacy were aimed at carrying out a balanced multi-vector foreign policy in 2017, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in its annual report released on Thursday.

"In the face of mistrust between Russia and the West, on the one hand, Belarus has remained committed to strategic partnership with the Russian Federation, integration within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, and traditional interaction with members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Commonwealth of Independent States," the ministry said.

On the other hand, Belarus continued to build constructive pragmatic relations with the European Union, the United States and other Western countries, it added.

According to the report, the Chinese vector of Belarus' foreign policy was filled with new content. Belarus was among the first countries in the world to join the implementation of the Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative in a number of promising areas.

In order to diversify its foreign relations, Belarus continued to build other geopolitical pillars in the so-called "distant arc" regions: Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, the report said. Enditem