Belarus is not going to choose between the East and the West. The country’s participation in certain integration processes is often misunderstood, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry states.
“Unlike some other countries, Belarus has never made the accession to the European Union its aim,” Deputy Foreign Minister Alena Kupchyna told news agency BelTA.
According to the diplomat, Belarus’s participation in European integration processes hardly comes down only to the EU-Belarus cooperation.
“We also have the Central European Initiative (CEI), the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the Eastern Partnership – all these forums are striving for developing a constructive and mutually beneficial cooperation in the European region,” Kupchyna said.
The only condition Belarus has in integration processes with Europe is a win-win cooperation and non-enforcing an ‘artificial’ choice between the East and the West,” she added
The Central European Initiative (CEI) is a forum of regional cooperation in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, counting 18 member states. The Initiative aimed at overcoming the division in blocks by re-establishing cooperation links, among countries of different political orientations and economic structures. In 2016, Bosnia and Herzegovina holds the presidency of the organization; next year, Belarus will take it over.
Belsat.eu
