Minsk-SANA
The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, expressed his rejection of the criticism leveled against his country over the accidental landing of an Irish passenger plane at Minsk capital airport.
Lukashenko clarified during his meeting today with members of Parliament, members of the Constitutional Committee and representatives of state administration bodies that the actions of his country's government did not deviate from the rules of international law.
Lukashenko described this incident as a pre-planned provocation against Belarus, calling on the West to pay compensation instead of spending the Belarusian authorities on dealing with the incident.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry confirmed yesterday that the Western countries have politicized the emergency landing of the Irish "Ryanair" plane on their territory, and came to hasty conclusions, while the Belarusian authorities acted about the incident in a manner that fully complies with international rules, calling for the need to consider the incident from a safety and aviation safety point of view.
On the other hand, the Belarusian president confirmed that his country acted as a sovereign state when it expelled the Latvian embassy staff in the capital, Minsk.
Yesterday, Belarus asked the ambassador and all the employees of the Latvian embassy in Minsk to leave its territory. “The ministry has summoned the Latvian ambassador to Minsk to hand him a protest note due to the offense to the Belarusian national flag in the Latvian capital, Riga.”