On the statement of the Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN under agenda item «Sport for development and peace»
03.12.2018On December 3 Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN Valentin Rybakov delivered a statement (in Russian) at the United Nations General Assembly plenary meeting under agenda item «Sport for development and peace».
The Belarusian official noted the increasing role of physical culture and sport in shaping healthy lifestyle and in achieving sustainable development goals.
Valentin Rybakov emphasized that sport is inseparable from politics. Sport achievements help promote national image of states on the international arena. At the same time sport should remain politically neutral.
The Head of the Belarusian Mission drew attention of the participants of the meeting to main challenges that modern sport faces today, in particular doping and biased judging that violates basic principle of fair play and deprives athletes of confidence in equal chances to win. As Valentin Rybakov noted, the International Olympic Committee plays an important role in fight against modern negative tendencies in sports and should rely on the National Olympic Committees, whose opinions can’t be ignored.
The Belarusian diplomat noted that health of people, development of physical culture and sport are priorities of social policy of Belarus. He reminded that Belarus had been given the right to host the most important sporting events of the European continent in 2019 – II European games, as well as the 85th Ice Hockey World Championship of 2021.
