Belarus’ FM on signals from West to build relations with Belarus

Belarus is receiving more and more signals from the West about its readiness to build relations – as stated by Belarus’ Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov in an interview with Izvestia, BelTA reports

photo: www.iz.ru

“Politically, we are receiving more and more signals of readiness to build relations with us. There are so many issues that connect us with Europe: from political to humanitarian, from cultural to economic. But here on the perimeter of our border there are members of the European Union, who in every possible way hinder the development of interaction, fuelling an atmosphere of distrust, while they themselves are solving their own issues under the guise,” Mr. Ryzhenkov said.

The FM reminded that President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s election programme said, among other things, about the normalisation of relations with Europe. “We are part of Europe, we cannot be cut off from it, just like Russia. The best thing for all of us would be to develop an Eurasianism approach, where everyone benefits: Europe, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and all other states. Meanwhile, today everyone is being harmed because of the position of some countries,” Mr. Ryzhenkov pointed out.

According to him, now there are opportunities for normalisation of relations between Belarus and the West as a whole, and Belarus receives such signals.

“But they are, you know, as if in two minds. They seem to be ready for a greater increase in their political status, the lifting of some sanctions, the resolution of practical issues that we are interested in. But they have whipped up anti-Belarusian hysteria, presented the entire leadership of Belarus as demons under the Head of State. They have closed border crossings, put thousands of Belarusian citizens on sanctions lists, imposed an incredible number of sanctions against trade with Belarus. Thousands of entrepreneurs and enterprises in Western Europe have been affected,” said the diplomat.

However, Belarus managed to build a good trading system and reorient trade flows.

“The businesses there pose a question to the local authorities: you either help us in the amount that we have lost or open the borders. However, they can’t open the borders. So, they tell us that we should do something political so that they can ‘sell’ it to their people and make them understand why they opened these borders. Only Westerners can come up with such logic,” Mr. Ryzhenkov explained.