Official Minsk instead of full participation in the summit of the European Union program "Eastern Partnership" made the demarche, which could further restrict a space for maneuver in foreign policy. This opinion was expressed by Belarusian experts in international affairs to a correspondent of UDF.BY website.
As UDF.BY previously reported, the Foreign Ministry of Belarus today declared Belarus' refusal to participate in the summit of the "Eastern Partnership", which takes place in Warsaw. In addition, the Foreign Ministry stated that "the decisions of the summit related to the interests of the Republic of Belarus and adopted without the direct consent of our country will be illegitimate".
"In connection with the expression of a more than restrained "hospitality" to a representative of the official Minsk, this statement was quite predictable", told UDF.BY by telephone from Warsaw a political analyst Roman Yakovlevsky, who reviews the work of the summit.
According to him, "the demarche of Martynov, who ignored the invitation to the summit, was followed by another demarche of Minsk. The representative of Belarus in the capacity of the ambassador Gaisenok ignored the participation in the summit session".
Roman Yakovlevsky convinced that by doing so, "the official Minsk is actually boycotting the event and certifies the actual absence of Belarus in the "Eastern Partnership".
However, says political observer, the summit won't remain without Belarusian representatives: "Now the country, in the Civil Society dimension of the program, is presented by non-state actors and the opposition."
The expert on international affairs Andrey Fedorov considers the Foreign Ministry statement, as the termination of the official delegation's participation in the summit. "But it is still not clear whether the official Minsk will withdraw from the program "Eastern Partnership", he told UDF.BY.
In his view, the decision of Belarusian authorities could be influenced by the factor, that they didn't get the effect, which they expected by taking the decision on participation in the program. The refusal to participate in the summit came after the authorities realized that, "there is no way to expect something good or neutral from the summit, so they decided to slam the door".
As for the statement about the illegitimacy of the decisions, which were "adopted without the direct consent of our country", this is, by the expert's opinion, "looks a bit funny". "This program has the guide and the guided: the EU and partner countries. European Union gives money, European Union determines the policy, so they can adopt any decisions concerning Belarus", said Andrey Fedorov.
UDF.BY interlocutor says that "generally, as the EU invited Belarus to participate in the "Eastern Partnership", it may withdraw the invitation as well". But what will Belarus benefit from this?
"Of course, the official Minsk had nothing particular from the participation in the program, but it had the opportunity to play its political game in the east and west directions. And if they slam the door and go out, then they will deprive themselves of this opportunity too", the expert concluded.
