Alexander Lukashenko's successful visit to Uzbekistan once again confirms that the economic development of Asian countries is acquiring a new quality, allowing to talk about the region not only as a workshop of the world, but also as a major consumer.
Nikolai Mezhevich, executive director of the Russian Association of Foreign Policy Studies, is sure of this. According to the expert, against the background of sanctions pressure from the West, turning to Asia is one of the most promising vectors of our country's foreign economic development.
Nikolai Mezhevich, executive director of the Gromyko Foreign Policy Studies Association (Russia):
I would venture to suggest that both the issue of import substitution and overcoming external pressure require the development of relations conditionally with new partners. Why conditionally? Because Russia, Belarus and Uzbekistan were once part of a single state, so it is not true to say that we do not know each other at all. It is not true, and there are veterans working in the Foreign Ministry and the Presidential Administration. Yes, now we can say that they remember this era, but it's one thing to know, and another thing to actually use the opportunities that we have. So it seems to me that any development of relations with Asia now in the widest circle from the two Koreas to China, from China to India, from India to Pakistan, from Pakistan to Uzbekistan is extremely promising. And I would not forget Iran here, either.
