Western model of world development has never taken into account interests of poor countries, expert asserts

The Chairman of the Minsk regional organisation of the Belarusian trade union of chemical workers, miners and oil refiners, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor Dmitry Shvaiba, drew attention to this during his talk with Alfa Radio

The programme host Polina Konoga stressed that the energy crisis has exposed the issue of discrimination against poor countries.

“The poorest countries are losing competition with the Western world in requests for the supply of liquefied natural gas. Bangladesh and India are forced to cut off electricity. Afghanistan also has to save money, sending applications for gas, but they remain unsatisfied while it goes somewhere on the European market,” Dmitry Shvaiba expressed his opinion.

The expert stressed that the Western model of development and vision of the world has never taken into account the interests of poor countries.

“The very idea of the transition of the European energy market to spot contracts, which imply the extraction of momentary benefits, is conscious. They were moving to it for more than one year. Great Britain was the main engine and conductor of this idea. Great Britain understood that it had a certain safety cushion in the form of Norwegian supplies: this logistics is well built across the North Sea. That is, they are secure to some extent. But the major players in Europe are forced to resolve their issues through supplies from Russia, which is a fairly honest and adequate option. The Russian Federation offers both long-term contracts and fixed prices, which are almost always below the market average. It has always been beneficial,” explained the expert.

Dmitry Shvaiba noted that in the current situation of imbalance of energy resources, poor countries are becoming even more vulnerable.

“Despite the pressure exerted on Russia, it is an island of energy security. Many are already quickly reorienting themselves to Russian suppliers,” he added.

The Candidate of Economic Sciences believes that the cost of energy resources in the world will grow. No one can answer where the limit is,” he concluded.