Long sitting on fence. Belarus totally undecided about development model - expert
This week, Alyaxandr Lukashenka has held a government meeting on Belarus’ international cooperation. The Belarusian leader snatched an opportunity to criticize partners and neighbours.
Many complaints went to the eastern direction; according to Lukashenka, the Union State does not ensure equality while the Eurasian Economic Union’s integration process has rolled back. In his opinion, the CSTO has also nothing to boast of: its member countries have not been able to elect a new secretary general for six months.
“The problem is that Belarus is not building up a relationship line either with the East or the West. Belarus is totally undecided about its development model,” Andrey Yahorau, Director of the Centre For European Transformation, told Belsat.
Notably, the Belarusian leader was choosing his words more diplomatically when speaking about the West in the course of Tuesday’s meeting. The EU is negotiating trivialities, the sanctions have not been fully lifted, but investment and trade are growing and favourable loans are provided to Belarus, Lukashenka noted. NATO might be coming closer, but, according to Lukashenka, Belarus has only ‘partner’ intentions towards them. Interestingly, earlier Alyaksandr Lukashenka slammed European ‘double standards’ and the Belarusian opposition’s alleged denunciations, but now it is the eastern neighbour who is to blame for thwarting a dialogue with the West, Lukashenka believes.
“I want our supporters and opponents in the Russian Federation to hear us saying that,” he said.
Apparently, Russia became a major target of criticism Lukashenka was heaping at the event. It seems that Minsk has a long way to go to reach some balance in relations with all its neighbours.
“A paradox in Belarus-EU relations resides in the fact that Belarus does not aspire to the Western democratic model. In turn, a paradox of integration with the East is that Belarus is willing to remain an independent country, but joins Russia’s integration unions. But Russia does not want their neighbours to be independent,” Andrey Yahorau stressed.
It is fair to say that Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey faulted some ‘western neighbour’ for blocking the signing of the Priorities Partnership Agreement between Belarus and the European Union. He did not specify whether it was Poland or Lithuania. The latter has repeatedly expressed concerns about the work of the would-be Belarusian nuclear power plant.
“These documents [Agreement] are very important to Belarus; they can make life easier for ordinary Belarusians, and draw the EU closer to Belarus,” political analyst Ales Lahvinets believes.
Such changes, in turn, would not be in the interests of Russia that, by the way, provided Belarus with a loan for the construction of the NPP in Astravets.
Belsat.eu
