Belarusian deputy foreign minister Oleg Kravchenko has said that the country has no intention of joining the European Union, adding that the country will stay in an alliance with Russia and the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAU).

Speaking at a conference in Minsk on March 28, the deputy minister stated that the EU should look to Belarus as a neighbour, not a country that wishes to join the European bloc or may wish to join it in the future.

Mr Kravchenko added that the Eurasian Economic Union, the transcontinental trade bloc led by Russia, of which Belarus is a member state, is only an economic organisation, not a political one.

“Of course, not all [things] are simple in the Eurasian Economic Union. Sometimes discussions are quite heated, but this proves that the member states intend to do everything to make the organisation better,” he added.

Mr Kravchenko has hope that the EU and the EAU would one day create a single market. “This will be in the interest of both the European Union as much as the Eurasian Economic Union,” he concluded.