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Russian ambassador recommends Belarus, EU to resume dialogue

Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Surikov has recommended Belarus and the European Union to resume their dialogue.

"A dialogue and a talk always give more than their absence," he said in Minsk on March 4. "The European Union and the Belarusian foreign ministry must be less nervous and seek a dialogue more. The EU ambassadors must ask to be invited to the Belarusian foreign ministry for an open and even hard-line dialogue. There are differences, but there are also issues on which a compromise could be found. The Belarusian foreign ministry, for its part, must invite the ambassadors. Those who fail to meet each other halfway are unable to achieve anything."

Mr. Surikov said that he expected Russia's new president to continue building the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia and the Union State of Belarus and Russia. "We expect hard businesslike work aimed at increasing the welfare of our peoples and strengthening integration ties," he noted.

The ambassador acknowledged that some problems relating to the Union State had not yet been solved. "We have failed so far to create a constitution, failed to delegate part of the powers to Union State bodies. But now we are going through a new stage of integration processes that involve other countries, specifically Kazakhstan. This will give a certain impetus to economic development," he said.

Mr. Surikov warned that in the framework of the economic bloc Russia would not like to "incorporate" less developed economies the way it happened in the European Union. "We want to preserve the economies of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan through an increase in people's well-being," he said. //BelaPAN