MINSK, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - Belarus, which has pulled out of Sunday's summit of the post-Soviet CSTO security bloc in protest against trade restrictions, has said no summit decisions will be valid without its involvement.
Russia has infuriated Minsk by banning imports of the country's dairy products, citing violations of new Russian standards.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a note handed to the Collective Security Treaty Organization's secretariat that the country's non-participation "means the lack of approval from the Republic of Belarus of decisions being considered" at the summit, along with the foreign and defense ministers' meetings, and "consequently a lack of consensus for the taking of these decisions."
The Belarusian government earlier said it would refuse to send a delegation to the summit, in protest against "economic discrimination" on the part of Russia. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that draft documents could be passed without Minsk's involvement.
Earlier in June, Russia banned imports of over 1,000 types of dairy products from Belarus, dealing a significant blow to its budget revenue, saying producers in the ex-Soviet republic had failed to comply with new Russian regulations.
The summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan was preceded by a meeting of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers.
