Interview with the President of the Belgian House of Representatives , Siegfried Brake
Well , I think without exaggerating and without using too much of the diplomatic language , that the relationship between Belgium and Uzbekistan is very well . First of all , as time goes by , we learnt to get know each other in much better way than before . And secondly , the relationship between the two countries even due to my visit to your country last year was deepened and broadened . I think this is important and we should keep on trying to even get the relationship better than it is already today . I learned about your country through my visit and through reading . Because once you visited the country you will keep on reading whatever piece of news comes in and if it is on Uzbekistan then your attention is drawn in that piece of information . I must say that I understand your country much better than before . First of all , I myself being Flemish patriot and being within the government majority in Belgium , understand pretty well the way your government is always referring to tradition , to identity , and to being unique but at the same time related to others . I learnt also about your country with cultural visits and tourist visits to your national heritage , which is of course very important element to create identity , to create unity and being related to each other , accepting of course the differences between human beings . I think your country , your President and your Government is doing the right thing by putting the focus on the common past , that you have throughout the nation . This is at the same time the source of inspiration for the present and of course for the future . I think this is very important and this is something I ’ ve learnt in your past because within your very recent history , which means before 25 years you had a problem as a country being not really independent within the Soviet system . And after that during for now 25 years you had to rebuild your society and I understand pretty well that creating identity on the basis of a common past , on common history . I would like to remind Amir Timur and how important he is like all historical persons for the national history and heritage . Just like everybody else but , of course , it is important in terms of history to have a sort of common past as a source of inspiration to build on a future and that ’ s one of the things I ’ ve learnt . Another thing is that your President is the designer of a 5 principal elements of reforms in which I can easily recognize , that it is a very strong , sort to say , “ Bible ” to build on your nation and to create added value and progress . Just to remember I wrote them down , these principles . First of all it is the prevalence of economic reforms . And , of course , after the period within the Soviet system you will need these economic reforms because it is a beginning of future , it is a beginning of well-being and prosperity for your whole population . It should be within the world system of liberalization and I do understand that your government is trying to control the process of liberalization , because they don ’ t want to , let ’ s say , from communism 26 years ago to go fast into so called “ wild capitalism ”. There are many examples in the world of countries , which made such steps too quickly and then they paid a price . Because neither the population , nor industry or economy were prepared to make such a giant step within a distance of few months or few years . Second principle - Respect to the rule of law . I think it is very important , because we can ’ t build a state without respect to the rule of law . In that sense the rule of law is indeed the pillar of the state . It is very interesting and it is very important that it is one of the main principles in the Model of reforms of President Islam Karimov .
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