Speech by Denis Gonchar, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of Belgium at the Russian-Belarusian event dedicated to challenges and prospects of Eurasian security, Brussels, November 27, 2025
28 November 2025 18:55
1987-28-11-2025
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
First of all, I would like to thank you for accepting our invitation and attending this event, organized jointly with our Belarusian colleagues and dedicated to the issues of Eurasian security. This topic is more relevant than ever, particularly here in Brussels, given its role as the capital of the European Union and NATO.
I hope that no one tried to prevent you from visiting our event today, as was the case for some participants in the third Minsk conference on Eurasian security, October 28-29. In any case, we value your principled position whilst the majority of western countries seek to create an atmosphere of intolerance around everything related to Belarus and Russia.
This year we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the United Nations and remember the importance of peace won by our fathers at a great price. It is also worth recalling the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act. This is a good opportunity to reflect on what the world as a whole and Europe in particular have achieved over the years, and where and how we should move forward.
The Soviet Union, succeeded by the Russian Federation, made an enormous contribution to the formation of both the post-war system of international relations based on the UN Charter and the European security order based on the Helsinki Decalogue and a whole range of multilateral agreements.
Unfortunately, the constant violation of the principles of sovereign equality, non-use of force or threat of force, and non-interference in internal affairs has led to the most serious global security crisis since the end of World War II. International law is being replaced by the law of the strong, and the world is being artificially divided into a "garden" and a "jungle."
As for the Euro-Atlantic area, the mutual commitments on the indivisibility of security adopted at the highest level at the OSCE have been broken, namely that no one has the right to strengthen their own security at the expense of the security of others and that no country or organization can claim dominance.
The unrestrained expansion of NATO, contrary to promises that it won't take place, and the imposition of a NATO-centric model of the world, the collapse of the arms control system, the instigation of color revolutions and forced changes of power, aggressive democratization and the undermining of traditional values - all this has bankrupted the Euro-Atlantic security system, provoked the crisis around Ukraine and more broadly between Russia and the West, and is now generating tensions far beyond the Euro-Atlantic area, including in the Middle East, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Russia, which stretches from the Black and Baltic Seas to the Pacific Ocean, is an indispensable part of Europe and Asia. We have never sought confrontation, but strived to develop good relations with civilisations in both the West and the East. We have repeatedly offered NATO countries to repair the common European "house", including in 2021 - by concluding legally binding agreements on mutual security guarantees. However, all our initiatives have been arrogantly rejected or ignored.
We have to state that even after using Ukraine in the hybrid warfare against our country for three and a half years, neither NATO nor European Union member states, with rare exceptions, are willing to learn from what has happened. Ideas are being floated about building a new European security system without the participation of Belarus and Russia. NATO, intimidating its population with the Kremlin's non-existent plans to attack the Allies, has begun, as crazy as it may seem, to prepare for a major war with Russia. In its turn, the EU is pushing for relentless militarization, burying the original concept of a united Europe for peace and prosperity and turning itself into an appendage of NATO. As a result, Europe is rapidly losing its global weight and competitiveness. I am sure that this is not the destiny that the founding fathers of European Union envisioned for the Old World.
We can all see that the West is trying to drag our closest neighbors in the post-Soviet area, as well as our partners in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, into their confrontational schemes. However, just as illusory as their plans to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia have proved to be, so too have their attempts to divide and sow discord between us and our friendly states.
The world is changing rapidly: the period of collective Western dominance is becoming a thing of the past, and the political and economic influence of the countries of the Global South and East is growing. This is confirmed by pure statistics in different spheres of life. The global majority refuses to submit to anyone's dictates and pressure and is increasingly asserting its rights. Despite the enormous opposition of those who control the "golden billion," the trend toward multipolarity is accelerating around the world.
In order to support these constructive processes, Russia and its like-minded partners propose to focus efforts on transforming Eurasia into a single space of peace, stability, and development, to build an architecture of security for all countries and associations on the continent without exception, based on the practical implementation of the principle of equal and indivisible security, and to ensure that all participating states are confident in their own future. The initiative put forward by Belarus with Russia's support to develop a Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the 21st Century is intended to play a consolidating role in this regard. As far as I know, my Belarusian colleague intends to give more details about it.
We welcome the support expressed by Iran, Myanmar and North Korea for the declaration on the future Eurasian Charter. We appreciate the constructive approaches to the issue of Eurasian security taken by our neighbours and friends in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as well as other partners in Eurasia. We are glad to note that the Russian-Belarusian vision is in harmony with the basic principles of the Chinese Global Security Initiative. We count on contributions and proposals from all countries of the continent on further strengthening security and stability in Eurasia, based on the principle of the primary responsibility of regional states for ensuring their own security, excluding destructive external interference. In order to promote the idea of Eurasian security, we also consider it important to significantly intensify the dialogue between multilateral organizations already operating in Eurasia, including the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, the Gulf Cooperation Council and others.
Speaking at the CSTO summit in Bishkek today, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested holding an international expert forum in Moscow in 2026, dedicated to the creation of an equal and indivisible security architecture in Eurasia. Representatives of friendly countries, multilateral organisations and integration associations are invited to participate.
In principle, we are open to cooperation with our Western neighbors on the Eurasian continent, if they abandon their confrontational course toward Russia and are ready to embark on a path of pragmatic, mutually respectful interaction based on a balance of interests. As the Russian leader has emphasized, if Europe wants to remain one of the independent centers of global development and one of the cultural and civilizational poles of the planet, it undoubtedly needs to be on good terms with Russia, and it is important to mention that we are ready for this. In this case, we could think about developing and agreeing on a new model of security cooperation in Western Eurasia as part of the emerging continental architecture.
Thank you for your attention.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
