Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 29 – Vladimir Makey,
Belarusian foreign minister, continued to distance Mensk from Moscow by saying
that his country seeks a “balance” between Europe and Russia, a statement to a
Prague paper that underscores the concerns of Belarus about its own fate in the
wake of Moscow’s Crimean Anschluss and Mensk’s new efforts to attract Western
support.
Belarusian President Alyaksandr
Lukashenka sharply criticized Russia’s annexation of Crimea in comments that
could not have been welcome in Moscow and would have been the basis for
expanded talks and enhanced cooperation with the West had they come from anyone
but a leader regularly reviled as “Europe’s last dictator.
Now Lukashenka’s foreign minister
has gone beyond those comments and suggested that it is the fate of Belarus “to
balance between East and West,” a remark reflecting Mensk’s hope that its
position on Ukraine and the deteriorating situation in some other post-Soviet
states will lead the EU specifically and the West more generally to revise its
approach to Belarus (regnum.ru/news/polit/1796547.html).
Makey said that
EU states need to recognize that there have been “definite shifts” in the
political sphere and that these changes mean that the EU’s reaction to the December
2010 events in Belarus are increasingly “inadequate” and in supportable given
the country’s policies, size and the situation in other countries in the
region.
The EU imposed and maintains a
sanctions regime against 32 Belarusian enterprises, while it has imposed only
half as many against Syria and far fewer against the Russian Federation “after
the well-known events in Crimea.”
Governments should consider the reality that “Belarus is a small country
[while] Russia is a large one.”
According to the Belarusian foreign
minister, Mensk wants “to have normal ties with the European Union and with
Russia simultaneously because this will yield concrete dividends” for the
Belarusian people. He added that Belarus
is fated “to balance between East and West” and thus must find “a mutually
acceptable level of relations” with each.
Unfortunately, he continued, some
Europeans do not understand this reality.
With regard to the EU’s Eastern Partnership, he said, European partners “openly
acknowledge that the situation in Belarus compared to several countries including
those [in that program] is no worse and in many regards is even better than in
these countries.”
Despite that, however, Belarus is
excluded while others are included. What
some EU officials say in explanation is that “Belarus is close, on our border,
and therefore we are forced to double or triple our criticism” of Mensk. From a Belarusian perspective, he said, this
appears to be a form of “double or even triple standards” regarding his
country.
In fact, he said, in his view, “this
is a present-day form of racism” and thus totally unacceptable.
Makey reiterated that Mensk finds “absolutely
unacceptable” “the open support of the Belarusian opposition by countries of
the European Union,” especially when the EU doesn’t do this elsewhere and
especially because the events in Ukraine show where such external support can
lead to. Were Lukashenka to be ousted,
the situation in his country could rapidly deteriorate.
Belarus is committed to developing
ties with Europe because “we live in Europe geographically” and because “we
have made a very serious contribution to European stability,” by blocking the
flow of illegal migrants “who via the open border with Russia” have been
seeking to enter the EU.
Moreover, Makey said, if one asks
Lithuania, Latvia, Poland or other countries whether Belarus has “created any
territorial problems,” the answers will be not at all. And that too is
something the EU and its member countries should take into account in thinking
about Belarus rather than continuing to treat it as an outcast.
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