Belarus official’s attending the Eastern Partnership meeting may be a sign of interest in improving relations with the EU, analyst says.
Chinsau — the city in Moldova — hosted the Eastern Partnership meeting on June 5.
Alena Kupchyna, Belarus’ deputy foreign minister participated in it and was discussing the issue of “building a dialogue with the EU and foreign policy development based on the principles of equality and mutual respect,” Belarus’ FM reports.
Participants at the meeting included Stefan Fule, the EU commissioner for enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy, and Helga Schmidt, deputy secretary general for the External Action Service (EAS). Eastern partners were represented by officials of various levels ranging from ambassadors to deputy prime ministers.
Kupchyna’s visit was sign of Belarus’ interest in improving relations with the EU, says Arkady Moshes, director of the EU-Russia Eastern Partnership program at the Finnish International Relations Institute.
“The de-escalation process is under way. The ambassadors have returned and Minsk has made a step in response.”
The EU has an economic interest in Belarus as bilateral trade rises despite targeted sanctions against Belarusian officials, Moshes says.
He notes that it might take some time to mend fences. “Even if [Belarus] releases all political prisoners, a repetition of the 2008 scenario, when normalization took weeks, is impossible because the EU had its fingers burned in Belarus,” he says.
However, Uladzimir Mackievich, the head of the European Belarus consortium, a Minsk-based non-governmental organization, is critical of Belarus’ foreign policy, which he said is based on the principle “one step forward, two steps back.”
“Wrangling with neighbors without breaking off ties. Taking part in international initiatives without investing. Sending secondary-level officials to attend summits and top-level meetings. Taking commitments without honoring them,” he described Belarus’ foreign policy in an interview with Camarade.biz.
“Belarus joined [the EP] agreement but has not accomplished anything,” Mackievich says. “It has not implemented a single project, but complains about the lack of funding from the EU. It criticizes the initiative but would not quit it.”
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