MINSK, 6 October (BelTA) – Chairman of the International Affairs Commission of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus Andrei Savinykh spoke about terms of cooperation between Belarus and Europe in the V Teme [On Point] project on BelTA's YouTube channel.
“Indeed, we are destined to be neighbors, but this does not mean that we will always cooperate. And the most important question is about the terms of this cooperation. Over the past 30-40 years, an hierarchical and inherently unjust system has been created in the world. The centerpiece of this system - the United States, Western Europe - sucked out financial, human, natural resources from the countries of the periphery, including from us. We became part of this global system after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Do we need such cooperation with Europe? I am not sure about it. In many ways, prosperity in Europe was created not because of better management, but because they had additional advantages through unequal financial exchange with developing countries. And now this system is really collapsing,” Andrei Savinykh said.
He added: “We will never agree to the terms of interaction that will harm the Republic of Belarus. This is the first point that the president made when he spoke about global transformations and transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world. But when he spoke about relations, in my opinion, he meant relations with ordinary Europeans with whom we have never had political problems. A great number of forces in Europe want this cooperation and are ready for it. It's just their time has not come, they are not allowed to do it. We are ready to cooperate with these forces, people, business circles. And they know on what principles this cooperation should be built,” Andrei Savinykh said.
The MP noted that Europe is now a hostage to the situation. “The global superpower is conducting a large-scale campaign to de-industrialize Europe as its positions on the world stage are weakening. And this process will be irreversible. Thus, part of business circles and enterprises can relocate to Belarus in order to stay afloat. Time will tell how this will happen. But I think the Republic of Belarus will always be ready for such an equal and respectful cooperation due to the values on which the Belarusian statehood and society are built, due to the principles of foreign policy that we have been pursuing for more than a decade,” Andrei Savinykh said.
