The top-priority aspect of foreign policy of the Republic of Belarus is multilateral diplomacy and effective participation in the activity of international organizations. At the moment the Belarusian state is a member of more than 100 international organizations, both universal in the character of activities and membership, and regional and specialized.
United Nations Organization
In 1945 Belarus joined the ranks of founders of the United Nations Organization. The Republic has always been among the countries which resolutely fought to preserve the key role of the UN in maintaining international peace and security and addressing other pressing problems.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus V.Makey with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
The evidence of the high international authority of Belarus was the election of the country in 2012 to a number of elected bodies of the UN system. Thus, Belarus became part of the Commission on the Status of Women for the period of 2013-2017, the Commission for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice for the years 2013-2015, the Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for the years 2013-2016.
Moreover, the country is a member of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) — one of the main bodies for the coordination of the economic and social activity of the United Nations Organization and its specialized facilities and institutions.
The implementation of projects of international technical assistance worth a total of USD 490 million is planned in Belarus through specialized facilities, funds and programs of the UN system in 2011 — 2015 years alone. And this is without lending programs on the part of the International Monetary Fund.
Regional organizations
Belarus is the co-founder of the large regional organization of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which includes 11 countries of the former Soviet Union. The headquarters (Executive Committee) of this organization is located in Minsk. Since March 1994 CIS has the status of a UN observer.
The Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation are members of the Customs Union, which began working on January 1, 2010. At present the three countries are working on further extension of mutually beneficial cooperation within the framework of the Common Economic Space which was launched on January 1, 2012.
Meeting of the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils of the CSTO in narrow format
An important component of foreign policy of the Belarusian state is the participation in the regional security processes. First of all, this refers to the membership of Belarus in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which, in addition to our country, includes Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Belarus considers CSTO an organization that is able to ensure protection of national interests of its member states.
In December 2010, the Republic of Belarus assumed the chairmanship in CSTO. In this quality, our country put forward the initiatives aimed at further increase of the efficiency of the organization, the improvement of the governance mechanism of its functioning and the development of constructive interaction between member states on the international arena.
The cooperation of Belarus with NATO within the framework of existing mechanisms of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) and the program “Partnership for Peace” (PFP) is aimed at the development of a constructive dialogue in order to strengthen European and international security.
Since 1992, Belarus has been the member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and is actively participating in the elaboration of the most important OSCE documents and decisions by contributing to the development of the pan-European dialogue on issues of security.
Belarus is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Together with its partners in the Movement, Belarus stands against the practice of using double standards in international politics, stands for the construction of fair international economic order, the effective integration of developing countries and countries with economies in transition into the world economy, confirms the faith in the uniqueness and diversity of ways of progressive socio-economic and political development of humanity.
In April 2010, the Republic of Belarus acquired the status of a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which provides the opportunity to join the SCO activity in a wide range of aspects, including the consolidation of regional security, the activation of trade and economic, credit and investment and banking cooperation, the effective development of the transit potential, education and others.
In 2011, Belarus submitted a formal request to receive the status of an observer in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which will allow productively interacting with this powerful and representative international organization.