Sergei Rachkov: The West is not interested in a strong Union State

According to BelTA, at the remote panel session titled Security and Economic Sovereignty of the Union State: Common Priorities, Sergei Rachkov, member of the Coordination Council of Chairpersons of Committees (Commissions) on Defence and Security of the Parliaments of the CSTO Member States and Chairman of the Standing Committee on International Affairs and National Security of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, said that the West was not interested in a strong Union State.
“I do not need to say what is currently happening in the world. In particular, at the western border of the Union State and, unfortunately, already on the southern border of Belarus. Therefore, security issues are extremely relevant for us now,” said Sergei Rachkov.
Sergei Rachkov recalled that the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Belarus and Russia approved the new Military Doctrine. “I believe it was done in a timely manner, despite the fact that at the preliminary stage there was some criticism of Belarus and Russia, which allegedly showed their aggressiveness by approving this doctrine. Today, on the contrary, we see aggressiveness on the part of other states, primarily Western states and NATO. That is why, of course, we should be especially attentive to the issues of national security,” he said.
Mr Rachkov stressed that “the West is not interested in having strong Belarus, Russia or the Union State. The West needs weak states that will follow the instructions coming from the centres of power: Washington and Brussels. We strike our own path. We create a powerful economic, political and military union of two countries. And we are not going to pay attention to those who are dissatisfied. We are acting on our own territory. And we do not understand why the US Congress or the European Parliament are so concerned about strengthening the Union State. If they are not satisfied it shows that we are on the right track,” he said.
Sergei Rachkov noted the role of the CSTO and its parliamentary component in ensuring security, stressing that “the events in Kazakhstan demonstrated the timeliness of the CSTO establishment and its role as a guarantor of the regional security. And it is very important that a peacekeeping component was also created within the framework of the Organization, which was deployed to Kazakhstan in a timely and justified manner, thus preventing the situation in that country from developing by a negative scenario. We will analyse this and submit our proposals on strengthening the CSTO, on developing its various components, including the military, defence and military-political ones. It is important for us, as parliamentarians, to develop and expand the CSTO parliamentary dimension – the Parliamentary Assembly,” said Sergei Rachkov.
As you may recall, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union State of Belarus and Russia is an observer to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.