Frame grab from a video
MINSK, 10 June (BelTA) – Global majority countries are fed up with the West's patronizing attitude, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maksim Ryzhenkov said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel, BelTA informs.
“In fact, many countries are already sick and tired of the patronizing tone of the so-called collective West concerning all types of issues: politics, economy, foreign policy, finances, and so on. And more and more countries (although they try to hedge against possible ramifications) are ready to build pragmatic relations with each other, as they do not see the West as a silver bullet that can help resolve all their problems. As they turn to other partners and find other points of growth, these states are increasingly waking up to the fact that cooperation between the global majority countries is better for development than direct relations with the European Union. How can they benefit from relations with Europeans? They [Europeans] came, milked the resources, sold luxury goods to the ‘elites’ – it has always been their modus operandi, because Europe has practically no resources,” Maksim Ryzhenkov noted.
According to him, when the countries of the global majority began to zero in on their economies, they realized that they can provide for themselves and do not need the European Union products so much. “And by jointly developing competencies, they receive some additional product that is important for them. And this opens up new cooperation opportunities for us as we are trying to expand our presence in China, India, Pakistan, and African countries,” the minister said.
He noted that in recent years, Belarus' trade with African countries has increased many times over, and the number of projects has grown tens of times.
“And what do we see? We bought stuff from Lithuania for a billion or so (the same from the Netherlands), and half of it was the re-export from Africa, Asia, and so on. So these sanctions were a wake-up call for us. They helped us see what countries it all came from and to offer these countries our dry milk, the product we once sold to Lithuania and Poland. These two countries made something from it and sold it further to Africa and Asia. We have established direct contacts with them. That said, we do not act the way enlightened Europe does. Europe wants to get these countries to become dependent on it and use them solely as sales markets. You know, our president has this approach: we are going there as partners. It means that if we go there with our tractors, the tractor production will be localized there over time, we will teach locals how to service these tractors and perform some basic assembly operations. We will train local workers, create jobs and share competences,” noted Maksim Ryzhenkov.
“In fact, many countries are already sick and tired of the patronizing tone of the so-called collective West concerning all types of issues: politics, economy, foreign policy, finances, and so on. And more and more countries (although they try to hedge against possible ramifications) are ready to build pragmatic relations with each other, as they do not see the West as a silver bullet that can help resolve all their problems. As they turn to other partners and find other points of growth, these states are increasingly waking up to the fact that cooperation between the global majority countries is better for development than direct relations with the European Union. How can they benefit from relations with Europeans? They [Europeans] came, milked the resources, sold luxury goods to the ‘elites’ – it has always been their modus operandi, because Europe has practically no resources,” Maksim Ryzhenkov noted.
According to him, when the countries of the global majority began to zero in on their economies, they realized that they can provide for themselves and do not need the European Union products so much. “And by jointly developing competencies, they receive some additional product that is important for them. And this opens up new cooperation opportunities for us as we are trying to expand our presence in China, India, Pakistan, and African countries,” the minister said.
He noted that in recent years, Belarus' trade with African countries has increased many times over, and the number of projects has grown tens of times.
“And what do we see? We bought stuff from Lithuania for a billion or so (the same from the Netherlands), and half of it was the re-export from Africa, Asia, and so on. So these sanctions were a wake-up call for us. They helped us see what countries it all came from and to offer these countries our dry milk, the product we once sold to Lithuania and Poland. These two countries made something from it and sold it further to Africa and Asia. We have established direct contacts with them. That said, we do not act the way enlightened Europe does. Europe wants to get these countries to become dependent on it and use them solely as sales markets. You know, our president has this approach: we are going there as partners. It means that if we go there with our tractors, the tractor production will be localized there over time, we will teach locals how to service these tractors and perform some basic assembly operations. We will train local workers, create jobs and share competences,” noted Maksim Ryzhenkov.
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