PRESS RELEASE
Belarus Foreign Minister in EIR Interview,
Calls for 'Spirit of 1945' To Confront War
Danger and the Dark Side of Globalization
Oct. 9, 2012 (EIRNS)—The Oct. 12 issue of Executive Intelligence Review will feature an interview with Foreign Minister Vladimir Makey of Belarus. In New York for the 2012 session of the United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Makey spoke with EIR Russia and Eastern Europe editor Rachel Douglas, and UN correspondent Leni Rubinstein of EIR on September 29.
Makey was one of a number of high-ranking officials from various countries to deliver stark warnings from the UNGA podium, in his October 1 address to the body. He called for restoring the 1945 "spirit of San Francisco," referring to the founding conference of the United Nations, just days after the death of President Franklin Roosevelt. Without a return to justice and equity, he said, the world faces "a scenario that is even worse" than the current crisis, one that "is likely to be a modern version of the medieval Dark Ages, but aggravated by ever more dangerous transnational threats and challenges." In particular, Makey asserted that
"almost all of the global economic challenges have resulted from the policy of 'market fundamentalism,' relentlessly pursued by its proponents over the last four decades. Its major outcome has been the steady rise of inequality at all levels."
Vladimir Makey assumed the post of Foreign Minister in August of this year. After a military career in the Soviet and then Belarusian Armed Forces, retiring from the latter with the rank of colonel in 1993, he worked for fifteen years in the diplomatic service of Belarus. From 2008 until this past summer, he was chief of staff for President Alexander Lukashenka of the Republic of Belarus.
Asked by EIR to situate this year's UNGA session in its military-strategic context, Makey invokes the historical memory of 1945. In the interview, he states:
"The principles upon which the UNO was founded in San Francisco in 1945, have become distorted. The very spirit of how this organization should function has been lost. The UNO was founded in order to free the world from a recurrence of the most horrible war ever experienced, and to ensure a just world in the future. During the period of the Cold War and the standoff between the two blocs — the Warsaw Treaty Organization and NATO — and between the Soviet Union and the United States of America, I think that the UNO did play its part in preventing yet another world war. Indeed, there were cases where the world really did stand on the brink of such a war, such as the Cuban Missiles Crisis. But, unfortunately, in recent times this coordinating role of the UNO has been lost. It is no secret that, in the UN framework, a number of resolutions were formally adopted for the purpose of preventing the fomentation of tension in a number of regions, including in several countries in the Middle East. These formal resolutions, however, have been interpreted by individual countries according to their own lights. Ultimately this has led to several legitimate regimes being overthrown by force. We should return to the principles of lawfulness and equity that were laid down by the founding fathers of the UNO in the year when the organization was established."
Makey goes on to emphasize the need for the international community to deal with "threats and challenges" caused by the reigning paradigm of globalization. Belarus is the initiator of the UN program against trafficking in human beings. The Foreign Minister said that his country currently has to deal with "cross-border crime, illegal migration, trafficking in women, and drugs," the latter stemming from the war and drug-mafia ascendancy in Afghanistan.
In the interview, Makey outlines the attempts by Belarus under President Alexander Lukashenka, since 1994, to avoid "market fundamentalism" and preserve the role of the state in the economy. Belarus is both export-dependent (chiefly to the EU) and import-dependent (chiefly from Russia), a situation deriving from its historical status within the division of labor in the former Soviet economy, as an "assembly shop" for final products. Hence the 2008 explosion of the international financial crisis triggered hard times for Belarusian export-oriented industries, followed by the dramatic inflation and currency-devaluation emergency of 2011.
Foreign Minister Makey also discusses the participation of Belarus in the Customs Union with Russia and Kazakstan, operational since 2010, and the prospects for developing a Eurasian Union among these countries and others. Belarus continues to be interested in relations with Western Europe, he said, but
"there does exist a danger, [as] many people are talking even in terms of a crisis of the Eurozone, and the possible disappearance of the euro."
Citing the crimes exposed in the case of Barclay's Bank, Makey suggests that
"it probably should be an objective of the United Nations to develop some specific countermeasures, to make the banking system operate transparently and in a normal fashion, and promote the steady progress of the world economy."
He states that,
"both the market economists and the apologists of the former socialist economy will have to give up their long-established views."
