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Belarus sees EU-EAEU dialogue as important part of EaP development

MINSK, 4 June (BelTA) – The development of the Eastern Partnership Initiative should be accompanied by a dialogue between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union. Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei made the statement during the conference “Eastern Partnership at 10: Results and ways forward” on 4 June, BelTA has learned.

Vladimir Makei said: “Sharing information, harmonizing standards and technical regulations, removing excessive hindrances in trade, encouraging manufacturing cooperation at the level of the countries, which are members of both unions – all these promising and highly sought themes of cooperation are politically neutral and are geared towards long-term stability and prosperity on the scale of entire Europe. I don’t see why interaction that benefits both sides should be stopped by political barriers.”

In his opinion, the presence of competitive trade regimes – directly or indirectly – forces countries to choose one of them. “Bloc-based attitudes in economy lead to bloc-based attitudes in politics,” he noted. “A dialogue between the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union could remove these blocs and dispel the myth that the Eastern economic and value system is incompatible with the Western one. It is this myth as the basis of a false choice being forced upon post-Soviet countries that is the root cause of many conflicts.”

The Belarusian minister of foreign affairs underlined: “We understand that it will be difficult to accomplish, that there is a complicated and lengthy process of mutual reconciliation of the two blocs ahead of us. But working out a paradigm of their peaceful coexistence if not cooperation is vital for us. The stability of the trade and economic architecture in the region depends on it.”

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