Makei: Minsk not ready to quarrel with Moscow for sake of friendship with EU

Belarus is not going to abandon its partnership with Russia.

RIA Novosti was said about that on Thursday in Minsk by Belarus’ Foreign Affairs Minister Uladzimir Makei.

“We want to have normal relations with the EU in the framework of the Eastern Partnership initiative, and we are building such a relationship. But at the same time we do not want our participation to result in, to put it roughly, quarreling with Russia,” he said.

The minister stressed that during Riga Summit of the Eastern Partnership in the end of May, Minsk clearly and frankly expressed this position, and “by the way, it was understood by absolutely all participants.”

He believes that the Summit in Riga had not become an anti-Russian one. “Perhaps, someone wanted the summit to be anti-Russian. But what the leaders of many states were saying proves the opposite: they called for a dialogue with Russia and said that it should not be excluded from the dialogue”, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Belarus continued.

The Eastern Partnership is a multifaceted programme of the EU aimed at development of regional cooperation with the six former republics of the Soviet Union: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The Summit of the initiative was held on May 21-22 in Riga. There Belarus, represented by Makei, refused to condemn Crimea’s occupation by Russia.