Belarusian president calls for refocusing of eastern partnership

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday urged the European Union (EU) to shift the focus of its Eastern Partnership initiative from politics to economic cooperation.

"It would be good to refocus the Eastern Partnership from politics to closer concrete cooperation in economy," he said at a meeting here with Johannes Hahn, the EU commissioner for European neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations.

It is important, he added, that the partnership should not be directed against anyone, but be for the sake of cooperation.

The president also suggested that the EU determine several avenues of cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union.

"If someone in Europe believes that they can go on not noticing the Eurasian Economic Union, it is a bad decision," Lukashenko added.

Hahn, for his part, said economy is the major aspect for the European Union.

"The individual approach to all member states of the Eastern Partnership will be the key aspect. Therefore, we should know the interests of our neighbors and correlate them with the interests of the European Union in general," Hahn said.