Events

MINSK, 5 June (BelTA) – Belarus is ready to cooperate with new Ukrainian authorities. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the statement on 5 June as met with Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia Valentina Matviyenko and heads of the administrations of the Russian regions, who took part in the first forum of Belarusian and Russian regions, the press service of the head of state told BelTA.

“A new president has been elected in Ukraine. I think we will cooperate with the new president, with the new authorities because people, who live there are no strangers to us, they are just like us, kind, diligent but unlucky to get landed into such a situation. Certainly, we could reject them but then people would suffer even more,” remarked the head of state.

Alexander Lukashenko stressed that the enhancement of interregional cooperation will be a powerful foundation and the engine of any integration in the post-Soviet space. The President believes it is necessary to get regions of Kazakhstan and Ukraine involved in the process.

The head of state also mentioned the matter of Western sanctions against Russia.

“No sanctions will be able to choke Russia,” believes the President. “It is utter nonsense. We need another center of gravity in the world so that we could at last restore the multipolar world. The world cannot rest on one support and swing all the time from side to side. It is our principled view and certainly the West doesn’t like it”.

“And doing so they do their best to revive us and get us on our feet. We will turn away our eyes from there to revive our lands here. You will see the effect it will bring,” added the head of state.