Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 7 September (BelTA) - Belarus would like to see its western border as a meeting point for the EAEU and the EU, Belarus’ Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Oleg Kravchenko said at the conference on the future of the Eastern Partnership amid growing regional turbulence in Minsk on 7 September, BelTA has learned.

The deputy minister noted that Belarus would not want its western border to be the border of division for the major integration processes in Europe. “We want to see a direct dialogue between the EU and th EAEU, a direct route from Lisbon to Vladivostok,” Oleg Kravchenko said.

The foreign ministry official stressed that the military and economic union of Russia and Belarus does not mean that Belarus does not wish to develop cooperation with the EU and the United States. “Some progress that we have made in our cooperation with the EU and the United States does not mean that the steps that we have been taking along this way somehow represent an attempt to undermine the relationship with Russia and to move to another block. This block mentality should remain in the past,” he said.

Oleg Kravchenko also spoke about the changing geopolitical situation in the region. In this respect he mentioned the Helsinki 2 initiative put forward by the Belarusian head of state.