WASHINGTON – Ukraine and Belarus will not benefit from their authorities' policies of limiting their ties with the West and increasing their dependence on Russia, U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip H. Gordon said.
"We want to see a Ukraine with a free and transparent energy market, independent. The same goes for Belarus, by the way," the assistant secretary said in an interview with Delfi.lt news portal during his visit to Lithuania, according to the Web site of the U.S. Department of State.
"But again, both of those countries are making choices that, by limiting their economic and political options with the West, lead them to increase their ties and frankly their dependence on Russia. I don’t think that’s what they want," Gordon said.
According to him, the U.S. remains more than open in building its relationships with these countries.
"That’s why the European Union reached an association agreement with Ukraine. Nothing would be better for Ukraine than to build this relationship, free trade with the European Union and political ties. But again, I don’t think we can just sweep aside our concerns about democracy and human rights in those countries," the assistant secretary said.
