Balance of interests at the heart of Eurasian Economic Union

MINSK, 11 December (BelTA) - The balance of interests of all the member states and the real improvement of the quality of life should be at the heart of the Eurasian Economic Union, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said during a meeting with members of the Club of Editors-in-Chief of the CIS, Baltic States and Georgia, BelTA ahs learnt.

"Of key importance today is a balanced and well-thought-out strategy for the development of the Single Economic Space and later the Eurasian Union, which will balance out the interests of our countries and promote the real improvement of the quality of life of people,” said the head of state.

Alexander Lukashenko stressed that Belarus has been consistently participating in interstate associations. He recalled that Belarus has initiated and supported many integration projects.

The Belarusian head of state noted that the year 2012, like the previous one, was marked by continuing integration of the nations and peoples. "Not only have we created the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, but we have made headway towards the Single Economic Space. We are now discussing the prospects of the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union,” the President said. In his view, all this objectively makes the countries part of the world's political, economic and information processes. “At the same time we have started thinking over the correlation between national and global development models,” Alexander Lukashenko said. Modern political scientists have started making an increasing use of the concepts "European space", "universal space" and think more rarely in terms of a single state,” Alexander Lukashenko said. The President noted that the example of Belarus shows that the processes taking place here cannot be seen in isolation from the global and regional trends. Being located in the center of Europe, Belarus actively participates in the developments in the Eurasian space.

Alexander Lukashenko believes that for mass media and journalists, it is essential to have a deep and objective vision of the processes taking place in the former Soviet Union countries. Otherwise it will be difficult to convey their essence to the audience and to convince people of the correctness of decisions.

"The issues of full coverage of the integration in the national media space lie, in many ways, in the world outlook. We need to abandon the individualistic, competitive outlook of integration and start moving towards the integration system of values,” the head of state said. According to the President, the media should actively promote the spiritual and moral ideals: the love of Motherland, service to the people and respect for work. "In this regard, of particular significance are professionalism, responsibility, honesty and integrity of journalists. It is important that your work should serve noble and constructive purposes. This is the key task that must unite the media community of the fraternal peoples,” the President said.

Alexander Lukashenko invited the editors to engage in an informative and frank conversation that will promote better understanding of the common interests.