Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko to suggest developing plan to promote self-sufficiency to Putin

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MINSK, 8 June (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia need to develop a joint action plan to promote self-sufficiency so that they will not depend on developments in the West or in the East, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with the secretaries of the Security Councils of the CSTO member states in Minsk on 8 June, BelTA has learned.

The president proposed to conduct a comprehensive review of the legal framework of the CSTO, the Union State, and the EAEU. “We need to get a clear idea about what we need and what we don’t. We need to remove everything that cannot work and will never work, and leave the main things. We need to go back to fundamental documents, write down provisions that will be legally binding and agree on how to act in various situations, how to respond to various conflicts,” the Belarusian leader suggested. In his opinion, this would be a great helping hand in resolving conflicts like those between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. “We need to foresee all developments taking into account the reality of today. And we need to achieve solid agreements,” stressed Aleksandr Lukashenko.

In particular, he announced his intention to suggest to the president of Russia drafting a program of action, a kind of internal development plan. “You remember the times of the Soviet Union: we were under pressure, no one liked us, they tried to strangle us. But we did very well and were self-sufficient despite being largely cut off from the rest of the world. We should understand that we need to develop this space that includes Belarus and Russia, we need to become self-sufficient, so that no one will try to put us on our knees using the dollar or some other currency. We need to work out a plan for the internal development of our space, primarily Russia and Belarus, since we ended up in the same boat,” the head of state said.

“So far every time we do something, we factor in the East or West in our development plans like we cannot live without them. It is necessary to use the best practices of the past to make sure that our countries will live a normal life in the future. In fact, we have a common economic market and even a common defense space,” the president said.

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