Kupchyna demands not to criticize Russia at Riga summit

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus warns against confrontational and anti-Russian statements at the forthcoming Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit.

It was said by Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alena Kupchyna in an interview to the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Hirlap, Interfax reports.

“For us it is important that the meeting [the summit of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) in Riga on May 21-22] should not adopt any confrontational statements and that its participants should not show antagonism. It is a false idea that we should choose between the East and the West. Both are equally important,” she said.

Alena Kupchyna noted that the Ukrainian crisis must be resolved. The peaceful process should be expanded, rather than the crisis provoked.

“If we fail to go this path, if some politicians, for instance, would choose to highlight the anti-Russian rhetoric, this Eastern Partnership summit might become the last one. Belarus would like the Riga summit to be a meeting of hope, not disappointment,” Alena Kupchyna stressed.

As said by the deputy head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, European states “should think about the common space from Lisbon to Vladivostok, and we should mean the common political, economic and cultural space.”

Alena Kupchyna also noted that Belarus wants to become a European nation “without blood and disturbances in the society and economy.”

“It is constantly underlined in Brussels that through Maidan Ukraine has become a real European nation. Let us disregard the fact that, to my mind, Ukraine have always been a European country, labels do not matter. But adopting the mentioned logics, it becomes clear that we would like to implement our formation as a European nation without blood, social disturbances and economic meltdown,” she said.