The recognition auction
2009-11-06 15:43 "One cannot stretch out a hand for a dialogue, at the same time creating obstacles for the development of the trade and economic relations and contacts between the people with the other hand".Another claim related to the high customs fees for the Byelorussian goods in EU was recently made by Alexander Lukashenko himself during the meeting with the German business community delegation. According to him, the desire of Minsk to hold a dialogue with Brussels does not mean that "Byelorussia has got no choice, so we are going to bend over and crawl towards European Union".
A day before, during the meeting dedicated to the matters of developing relationship with EU, Head of Byelorussia underlined that the desire to be integrated in Europe should not cause any harm to the achieved level of cooperation with Russia.
At the same time, Lukashenko complained that "every step towards Byelorussia is attributed by counteragents to the demand of concessions on our part, either in economic, or in political field". He also noted that in a situation like this, the Byelorussians should be guided solely by their national interests instead of "someone's geopolitical ambitions".
Well, in case this recommendation is followed, it will take Minsk a long time to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, for its national interests may be described as maneuvering between the interests of the West, which is supporting Georgia, and the interests of Russia, which has already attracted Nicaragua and Venezuela as supporters of the independence of the former Georgian autonomies.
As Maskevitch explained to the Russian journalists, the Byelorussian parliamentarians have not yet defined the precise term for considering this soft issue; thus, by the end of the year, the task might still remain unsolved.
Salome Batiani
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