Belarus' diplomat comments on OSCE's discussion of Ryanair incident

MINSK, 29 July – Belarus has every right to show the truth to the world, and it once again declares the inadmissibility of the findings of the ICAO report on the incident involving the Ryanair flight FR4978 and will consistently and persistently prove its innocence, Head of the Central Office of Multilateral Diplomacy of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Irina Velichko told.

At the OSCE Permanent Council meeting on 28 July the Delegation of Belarus to the OSCE responded to the statement of the delegations of the EU and the USA. At the request of BelTA, Irina Velichko explained why this matter was discussed at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting.

“First of all, we need to understand the causes and effects that were not mentioned by the West at the yesterday's meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council. The decision to include this matter into the agenda of the meeting is nothing but the West's nervous response to Belarus' statement communicated to the OSCE member states the day before. In this statement Belarus gave its take on the findings of the ICAO report regarding the incident with the Ryanair aircraft that made an emergency landing in Minsk on 23 May 2021 due to the anonymous message about a potential bomb threat on board. Therefore, the yesterday's speech of the Belarusian delegation was not a response to the actions of the West, but their response to our efforts to inform the international community about the things that really happened with the Ryanair aircraft,” the diplomat said.

Following the release of the investigation report by the ICAO working group, Belarus disseminated its evidence-based position to all UN member states. It was sent to the foreign ministries of these countries, aviation authorities, foreign politicians, analysts and foreign media. The Belarusian position was also communicated to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"Belarus will continue to raise this issue with international organizations. Belarus has the right to show the world the truth. We use this right and we want to convey the facts that prove our innocence and compliance with the international aviation safety guidelines. Therefore, yesterday's meeting only confirmed that the West is trying to impose its version of what happened on the world. The West presents Belarus as a guilty party and is afraid that the facts of falsification against Belarus might be revealed," Irina Velichko emphasized.

According to her, all this is being done by the West, among other things, to justify, through ICAO, its illegitimate decision to impose a ban on the use of the airspace of Belarus and on the Belarusian aviation industry: "In this regard, the West is shying away from discussing this issue in the ICAO Council, despite the fact that this item has been introduced on its agenda at the initiative of Belarus. Belarus once again declares the findings of the report of the ICAO working group as unacceptable and will be proving its innocence, consistently and persistently."

Irina Velichko expressed regret that ICAO could not fight back against the political pressure from the West and that it turned from a technical into a political organization, putting the security of international air transportation at risk.