At the moment Belarus is not looking into the option of joining Russia in imposing sanctions on EU member states, Dzmitry Mironchyk, Spokesman for the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told svaboda.org.
Should the need arise Belarus and Kazakhstan might join Russia in sanctioning the West, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s minister of Foreign Affairs, said on December, 9.
According to the Foreign Minister, the rules and regulations of the Customs Union allow its members to impose trade regulations on third parties only if there has been economic pressure from that country towards any one member of the Customs Union.
“Despite that rule, the Customs Union at the moment is not considering imposing trade regulations to the West in response to Western sanctions on Russia. The possibility that this might happen in the future remains open, though,” Lavrov said.
“If the Russian side does not rule out that such possibility might happen in the future it is only their opinion. The Russian side has the right to put any issues on the integration associations’ agenda, and so does Belarus. In this situation I see no reason to give any special comment. This [opinion] was just a small excerpt from the Minister’s interview. In my judgement, it does not contain any message or expressions aimed at receiveng answers from Belarus or Kazakhstan. There is a description of rules and regulations of the Customs Union, a statement of the fact that this issue is not on the agenda and a statement of the fact that Russia may put it on the agenda,” Mr Mironchyk told a RFE/RL journalist when asked to comment on Lavrov’s latest interview.
