Фото: Посольство Беларуси в Бельгии
Belarus’ chargé d’affaires in Brussels, Siarhei Panasiuk, in an interview with TASS suggested that Europe return to constructive dialogue and outlined possible topics for discussion.
Most of the Russian state news agency’s report was devoted to Panasiuk’s description of the “horrors” of Belarus moving along a European path. According to TASS, he was commenting on “the increasingly frequent meetings in European institutions with representatives of the Belarusian radical opposition”.
“Belarus is already Europe, and it is calmly and consistently following its own European path, which it is shaping in its own interests together with its allies and partners,” he said.
Panasiuk then described, in propagandistic terms, the consequences of Minsk reorienting itself towards the West, from unemployment and economic crisis to the “destruction of Belarus’ pride — its efficient, world-class agricultural system”. It should be noted, however, that Alyaksandr Lukashenka regularly criticises officials over the state of agriculture, accusing them of mismanagement, livestock losses, unprofitability and other failings.
“Even such a brief analysis of the consequences is enough to raise a simple question: why do Belarusians need all this? So that Europe can stop fearing Russia? It is obvious that such a large-scale crisis in Belarus, which would drag on for decades, is certainly not worth such experiments. So perhaps it would be better simply to resume constructive dialogue with both Minsk and Moscow.
For example, with regard to Belarus, the EU should be interested in discussing issues of common indivisible security, joint border protection, combating smuggling and organised crime, migration management, ensuring logistics and freedom of movement, supplies of in-demand woodworking products, food products, machinery and humanitarian cooperation. And now, as it turns out, the experience of operating the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant may also be in demand,” he said.
At the same time, Panasiuk described cooperation within the CIS, the Eurasian Economic Union and the Union State as a “pillar of stability”.