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Lukashenko off to Sochi for working visit

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MINSK, 6 February (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko is on his way to the Russian Federation for a working visit. His aircraft has departed from Minsk National Airport, BelTA has learned.

“The Belarusian leader is to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi on 7 February. The heads of state will discuss a broad range of issues of the Belarus-Russia cooperation agenda,” the press service of the Belarusian president informed.

BelTA reported earlier that Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko announced his upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin as he spoke to reporters on 4 February. “It is highly likely that I will meet with President Putin on 7 February. I believe, and I will tell him openly about it, that some moment of truth has come. We have built these good relations [between Belarus and Russia]. We were the architects of these relations. Are we the ones to break them at the end of our political career? We cannot be here forever. The question is what legacy we will leave,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

He emphasized that Belarus seeks most friendly relations with the brotherly nation but pointed to a number of issues in the interstate cooperation. They mostly pertain to prices for and delivery terms of Russian gas and oil.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also pointed to a significant imbalance in Belarus-Russia trade. “We are running a $9 billion trade deficit with Russia. In other words, they sell here $9 billion more worth of goods than they buy. Who provides for whom?” the president noted.

The Belarusian head of state called for constructive cooperation. “We need to straighten relations. We need to pass to a new generation what we have achieved [in relations with Russia in the previous years] in a decent way,” Aleksandr Lukashenko concluded.

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