ArmInfo.The head of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, notes that the Eurasian Economic Union has not yet been able to overcome many barriers to trade and economic cooperation between the countries. He stated this today at a meeting at the Academy of Management under the President of Belarus, BelTA informs.
"There are a lot of contradictions behind the scenes. We have not overcome the barriers that we had to overcome by creating the EAEU. We will not leave the EAEU. We will fight. We will not get anywhere from this," said Alexander Lukashenko.
The head of state at the meeting spoke in details about the development of integration processes after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He noted the great role of Russia both in the issue of liquidation of the union, and in subsequent integration processes. "The Soviet Union collapsed, and Russia understood that it was impossible to do without national republics, and somehow they need to be left so that they are near. So the process started: The Union State is our joint project with Russia, then to the odds with this because of a certain jealousy EurAsEC was initiated. I say: for God's sake, the economic union is a cornerstone for us, we need to do everything so that there is the basis of our relationship, "said Alexander Lukashenko.
In this regard, he recalled the sometimes sounding proposals to abandon the Russian vector, to turn to the West. "Listen, how can we refuse? And where will we sell our goods? To the West? In the West, the economy is the same as ours," the President said. "Would they allow our products on their market? Never. No one is expecting us in fact. Therefore, these are just idle conversations. We proceeded from this when forming the Eurasian Economic Community. "
Alexander Lukashenko stated that then, mainly from the side of Russia, certain restrictive measures began to appear, for example, in relation to Belarusian food products. "After all, the union was formed on the basis of the freedom of movement of goods, capital, labor, and so on. This is not happening today in any of the directions. And you know where the brake comes from. And you probably hear when I'm almost open at meetings, without diplomatic formulations, I'm starting to name the perpetrators. Because it is very important for us, "the head of state stressed.
There are difficulties in the area of military-technical cooperation, despite the common regional grouping of troops with Russia in this direction. "We slowly came to the conclusion that we ourselves can create new types of weapons. And we need to buy some of the components and assemblies. We were oriented towards Russian production in the Soviet Union. They do not give us this. We have to win back with battle. Competitors ..." - explained Alexander Lukashenko. That is why Belarus, for example, when creating new types of weapons in rocket science, started to cooperate with China and is now further developing this direction. There is interest in the corresponding interaction on the part of Ukraine.