Expert: by giving up its military independence, Europe lost its economic might

Europeans have actually been thrown out of Central, South and East Asia and the Middle East. At present, Europe does not decide anything there – as noted by political scientist Aleksei Belyaev, the Dean of the Journalism Faculty at the Belarusian State University, in his talk with Alfa Radio.

According to the expert, Europe is experiencing a very serious crisis of its political influence.

“The Eurocentric world today has become American-centric. Continental Europe exists only as an appendix,” he explained.

The political scientists believes that Europeans themselves have created such a situation when, after WWII, they actually gave up their independence in the military sphere, “They have become an annex to the US in the form of NATO. It is a powerful alliance, European armies exist there, but if we compare military budgets, the US accounts for the lion’s share. American military bases and nuclear weapons are stationed in Europe, but Europeans do not have their military bases in the US. When you have no sovereignty in the military sphere, when you cannot defend yourself, you gradually lose everything else. This is how Europe’s economic might was taken away from it.”

Mr. Belyaev reminded that Europe naively believed US promises that it would be flooded with American gas and oil, and destroyed its ties with Russia’s hydrocarbon market.

“They’ve made a very serious mistake, and today they are ‘reaping the benefits’ by buying at triple the price from Americans,” he added.