News & Events in Belarus

Lukashenko instructs to minimize Belarus' dependence on oil games of major powers

MINSK, 7 April (BelTA) – The recent developments in the world require the most rapid action, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a meeting to discuss oil supplies to Belarus, BelTA has learned.

“We need to get started now. There is no time to engage in correspondence, arguments or coordination,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko asked about the current state of affairs in the country's oil refinery industry, in particular the capacity utilization, the efficiency indicators for the reporting period. “We have addressed these issues more than once this year and at the end of last year. With all the problems out there, we managed to contain the processes more or less in oil refining. But the virus problems and the subsequent corona-psychosis have, of course, complicated the situation,” he said.

“I would like to discuss the prospects. The oil market is turbulent, and the trends are absolutely unpredictable. The volatility is huge. The countries like ours need to be prepared for any development. It will be better, as I said, if we minimize our dependence on the oil games of the major powers,” the Belarusian leader stressed.

According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, these powers do not even hide what games they are playing and what goals they are pursuing. “They have already started taking action to raise oil prices. What we see is a cartel conspiracy,” he said.  “Unfortunately, we can not influence the situation. Even this pandemic and psychosis cannot influence them. Their eyes turned ‘green’ when they felt the drop in income,” the head of state said.

"The more pillars we create for our economy, the more sustainable the society will become and the more independent our policies will be,” the Belarusian leader.

The president believes that the efforts have not been enough. Issues that should be solved between business entities as part of regular contractual relations (or with the help of Belneftekhim) have to be considered at the highest level. “It means that when difficulties arise we do not use the economic, manufacturing  diplomatic and legal potential of the country to the full extent. If the issue is important and urgent, then the entire vertical of power needs to be involved to get it settled. There are no unsolvable issues here,” the president said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also inquired about the agreements on oil supplies for the current month, and the plans for 2020. “We need to steer clear of constant disputes and the state of continuous uncertainty,” he said.

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