By presiding over the Eurasian Economic Commission, Belarus lobbies the interests of Ukraine.
The Ambassador of Belarus in Kyiv, Igor Sokol, stated this in a conversation on the Ukrainian TV channel “Nash,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We in Belarus have not taken a single restrictive measure at the national level regarding Ukrainian products. Moreover, as chairmen of the Eurasian Economic Commission, we are lobbyists for the interests of Ukraine on many product items.
Healthy protectionism is, of course, needed. You need to protect your manufacturer, but when this is all based on legislative acts, when the opposite side is listened to,” said the ambassador.
Belarus is a member of the union state with Russia. The Russian Federation has imposed sanctions against Ukraine for Kyiv’s unfriendly actions. The Ukrainian authorities have been conducting a punitive military operation against Donetsk and Lugansk for seven years.
Ukraine did not recognize the victory of Alexander Lukashenko in the last presidential elections and announced that it would join the economic sanctions of the European Union. However, experts believed that in reality this would not lead to a severance of economic relations between Kyiv and Minsk. Ukraine is one of the main trading partners of Belarus; maintaining ties is necessary for Lukashenko to maneuver in bargaining with the Kremlin, whose proposals for real integration “Old Man” has been avoiding for several years.