"Minsk and Baku rely on the same principles of international law" MP Andrei Savinykh talks to Caliber.Az

Azerbaijan's relations with Belarus are a landmark and an important indicator of how the countries in the post-Soviet space can cooperate and develop. The ties between Minsk and Baku are certainly strategic and crucial in many aspects, such as Minsk's military hardware and Baku's oil.

Andrei Savinykh, Chairman of the International Affairs Commission of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus told Caliber.Az about the cooperation between Minsk and Baku and many other things.

- In your opinion, what level has been reached by the economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Belarus to date, and what are its characteristics and priorities?

- Belarus sees steady growth of export and import indicators in its trade relations with Azerbaijan. Today, the trade turnover between our countries exceeds $500 million, and it is steadily growing. Belarus delivers railway cars, foodstuffs, woodworking products, engines, and road-building machinery to Azerbaijan, and receives from your country oil products, petrochemicals, agricultural goods, vegetables, and fruit. And I would like to say that the sides naturally complement each other in the exchange of goods. That is, we have something to share, and there is a need for national products of the two peoples - each has its own. I am confident that in the coming years we will see an increase in our commodity turnover, as well as a transition to a new level of cooperation when companies from both countries will establish joint ventures and produce joint products for their own markets as well as for markets of third countries. Such examples already exist: Azerbaijan has an assembly plant for Belarusian tractors, MAZ trucks, and agricultural machinery. Baku and Minsk are now negotiating strategic cooperation between Azerbaijani companies and the Belarusian company Gomselmash.

- What will be the range of products?

- Perhaps it will be combines of various modifications, time will show. In other words, Azerbaijan and Belarus have great prospects for cooperation in many areas, especially in the petrochemical industry, and they will certainly be implemented.

- What is the peculiarity of the successful and strong political dialogue between Minsk and Baku? What will it be like in 2023?

- Bilateral relations between Belarus and Azerbaijan have always been characterized by a high level of understanding and coincidence of interests. We rely on the same principles of international law, so there has never been a problem in the dialogue. Suffice it to say that Baku and Azerbaijan signed about 120 agreements of various levels, and there used to be about 30 high-level visits between our countries each year. A little lower intensity of visits in 2021-22, but it is due to the situation with the global pandemic - it has generally affected the entire global political activity.

In the coming year 2023, I expect that we will make up for this gap, I expect contacts at a sufficiently high level in a number of areas. First of all, there is cooperation in the transport sector, especially in the context of the development of the North-South Transit Corridor; there will be dynamically developing relations in the energy sector, as well as in a number of other sectors through the ministries of industry, health, and others. I am confident that the parties will continue to support each other at the top level because the level of trust and mutual understanding between our heads of state is very high.

I would also like to emphasize the high level of interaction between our countries in international organizations. Minsk and Baku support each other's positions on promoting balanced approaches to strengthening international security and international cooperation in all UN fora. I believe that in 2023, the Parliaments of both countries will continue to actively interact both bilaterally and within the framework of inter-parliamentary organizations. Moreover, the nearest meeting will take place either at the Winter Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly or at the next session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Bahrain.

- The work on the creation of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, as you know, is ongoing. How deep are the integration mechanisms - can Belarus and Russia really become one country with a common economic and social life?

- Today Russia and Belarus continue to actively build the Union State; implementation of 28 sectoral union programs is on the agenda. Their completion will mean the formation of a single market, a single economic space in a whole range of areas. This includes a single market of energy resources, a single market of electric power, and a single transport market; common standards for industrial products, regulations governing trade, and industrial cooperation are also being introduced. I believe that the completion of these programs will bring the Union State to an absolutely new level of economic interaction where the countries will logically complement each other and participate in the common division of labour, specializing in different spheres and industries, thus increasing the added value to be produced by the joint production and trade.

In principle, this initiative is so far bilateral and includes only Russia and Belarus, it is such a bilateral integration track, which overtakes other integration processes both within the EAEU and, in fact, within the entire CIS. We expect that such integration will be successful for both countries and our union may become attractive for other countries of the region.

In my opinion, the model of globalization which was invented and implemented by the United States in its time is breaking down, the unipolar world is collapsing, and we are slowly and painfully moving to a multipolar world, at great cost. A multipolar world will undoubtedly mean the coexistence of large macro-regions, which will include whole groups of countries voluntarily coming together to implement economic, social, scientific, and maybe even defence policies. And above all, countries will come together to create their own zone of technological development and secure their future prospects.

Becoming a part of such macro-regions will, I believe, be a crucial factor for the survival of the states and their future prospects. It is quite possible that the Union State if established, will demonstrate obvious success allowing its members to develop, and sooner or later will become an attractive union, an example of unification for other countries. It is too early to speak about that yet, but such opinions already surface in the media. I think that such a thing is possible and the Union State may become the main integration process in the space of Northern and Central Eurasia. But the future will show how it will be realized in practice. And I am convinced that the leaders of both Belarus and Russia, if this state is successful, will decide to open its integration space to all states who will share their principles, to work openly and peacefully, on mutually beneficial and equal terms, to ensure the future of their peoples. These rules will probably be the main ones for joining the process.

- How viable do you think the CSTO is now? Is there an opinion that the bloc is in crisis?

- The collapse of the old globalisation, the unipolar world, is beset by very serious costs and threats, as can be seen in the way international policy is changing before our eyes, first of all by the refusal to respect international law and international obligations. And we can see that this is being done by the world's leading states, which in their day were the architects and initiators of the old type of globalisation.

This increases the number of local conflicts, which are also fuelled by external forces trying to create a system of controlled chaos, where individual transnational companies or states try to reap individual dividends or benefits in the course of transformation. All this brings security issues to the forefront. And it seems to me that today all countries will come together in the hope of ensuring their own security through various forms of collective engagement. We see a continuation of the development of NATO, which is already showing aggressive traits. We also see new blocs emerging: AUKUS, the trilateral defence alliance formed by Australia, Britain, the US, and KVANT, among others.

I think it is the CSTO bloc that is gaining importance today for the well-being and security of the region. The CSTO is our military defence alliance, which aims to ensure the security of member states. We base our position on the inviolable principles of international law and, most importantly, on the principle that one cannot build one's security at the expense of the security of others.

It also includes the principle of sovereignty and integrity of Member States' borders. All states that are willing to follow and share these principles can become members or partners of the CSTO. I am confident that in the coming years, the CSTO will develop both its defence capabilities and its ability to counter new challenges and threats, such as cyberterrorism, organised crime, etc.