Raman Yakauleuski: Lukashenka needs money – Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese

There's the impression that the European Union needs Lukashenka more than Lukashenka needs the EU.

Political observer Raman Yakauleuski spoke to udf.by about the meeting of Eastern Partnership foreign ministers in Krakow.

- BelTA reports that Alena Kupchyna held meetings with foreign ministers of Lithuania and Georgia and Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle during her visit to Krakow.

Everyone met with everyone. This message doesn't say to whom she talked. When I see the news saying that the parties discussed prospects for cooperation in the Eastern Partnership project and development of Belarus-EU ties, I'd like to know whether it was a bilateral meeting or a common discussion. Other parties have not informed about discussions personally with Kupchyna so far.

- Did the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Visegrad Group and the Eastern Partnership countries, representatives of the EU and Ireland, holding the EU presidency, in Krakow on May 17-18 explain the motives of inviting EU blacklisted Uladzimir Makei and reasons for his refusal to come?

As far as I understood, Makei's invitation was only to suspend his travel ban. Organisers probably wanted to explain to Makei in Krakow their new more flexible position on him and their desire to see him at the EaP summit in Vilnius. Everyone knows that Makei is not alone on the blacklist. It would be impossible to lift the ban from Makei while his boss remains under restrictions. So Makei went to Yerevan instead of Krakow.

- Minsk is eager to “continue pragmatic cooperation in the Eastern Parnetship project” (as deputy foreign minister Alena Kupchyna said), while Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius says he hopes to “keep Belarus on the European track”. What can this symbiosis lead to? Does Lukashenka need European money not backed by gold?

Minsk has always understood the pragmatic thirst for cooperation in the Eastern Partnership project as trade and economic relations without human rights. As I remember, it was said by Uladzimir Siamashka following the Prague Summit that launched the Eastern Partnership. As for hopes for keeping Belarus on the European track, the current authorities already made their choice – the Eurasian way. In no case does it mean they don't need European money. They need all money in the world, including Russian, Chinese or Vietnamese.