MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. The European Union will ultimately have to engage in dialogue with Russia on Eurasian security, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart, Maxim Ryzhenkov, on the sidelines of the 4th International Conference on Eurasian Security in Minsk.
The top Belarusian diplomat noted that Minsk is not seeking to push away EU countries for good. On the contrary, Minsk is awaiting them at the negotiating table, when "they finally come to realize that their self-isolation is not in the interests, first and foremost, of the peoples of united Europe itself, and that it is better to be part of the common Eurasian space than to remain in what is, even geographically, from the perspective of the continent as a whole, a rather small area lacking resources and a market for their goods," he said. "We are waiting for them, but they must be ready for that."
Lavrov shared this stance. "Life will force them to," he said. "Let them listen and draw their own conclusions. Let them compare it with the position that others are pushing in our shared space."
"No less imports is that respect to diversity, each other’s unique development paths and interests give us hope that, at some point, it will be possible to agree on what used to be called a rational division of labor regarding the use of logistics routes and creating new ones for the use of natural resources, as well as on the harmonization of regional structures’ activities to avoid working on the same projects, but rather try to reach an agreement so that each one has their own niche, and together they form a harmonious whole. This is a long-term goal, but I believe it is quite realistic to work towards it," the Russian minister added.