MINSK, 27 April (BelTA) – No one will be able to create a rift between Belarus and Russia to accommodate some mercantile interests, Belarus' Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said in his article for the Belarusskaya Dumka magazine to mark 25 years of Belarus' independent foreign policy, BelTA has learned.
Vladimir Makei noted that, unfortunately, different events and processes in the region (the Ukrainian crisis, sanctions against Russia and Russia's food embargo, etc.) have had an impact on the Belarusian-Russian relations. “How do we know that? Some politicians, biased media and experts try to show Belarus as ‘Russia's sponger'. Minsk's natural intention to normalize relations with the EU and the United States, to bring these relations to the level of cooperation that the Russian Federation and other post-Soviet countries have with the West, is interpreted as ‘Belarus' tilt to the West', or the improper fulfillment of the Union State commitments. Problems are often artificially created in the areas of trade, economic, fuel and energy, border and other cooperation,” he explained.
“However, both the authorities and peoples of Belarus and Russia have an inner conviction that this dust will settle and that no one will be able to create a rift between the two friendly states for some mercantile interests, to damage the integration ties which are unmatched in the post-Soviet space. First of all, I mean the Union State,” Vladimir Makei stressed.
The minister drew attention to the fact that during the years of painstaking work the parties have created the common space from Brest to Vladivostok where Belarusians and Russians generally have equal rights in employment, education, social welfare, health, housing, business. “Citizens have the freedom of movement, and a choice of residence. The Union State finances a number of the Union state programs in various areas: space, information technology, microelectronics, agriculture, the Chernobyl mitigation effort.
Every second company has close links with Russian partners. Investment cooperation is being actively developed. One of the landmark joint projects is the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Ostrovets.
