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Opinions & Interviews

11 Oct 2013

Lukashenko: Belarus and Russia must be together

Lukashenko: Belarus and Russia must be together

MINSK, 11 October (BelTA) – It has never been more important for Belarus and Russia to be together in order to more successfully overcome emerging problems. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko made the statement at the press conference held for Russian regional mass media on 11 October, BelTA has learned.

Alexander Lukashenko said: “The global financial crisis has affected all the countries, including Belarus. It has dampened the pace of economic development, made the export of products and services complicated, particularly starting from H2 2013. This is why it has never been more important for Belarus and Russia to be together in order to more successfully overcome emerging problems. By the way, your colleagues report and not only they do it, after meetings with leaders of the Russian Federation we know that things are not easy in Russia, too, particularly in the production sector. You have seen that we are not as rich as Russia in gifts from the god. Therefore, our entire country is all about the real sector of the economy, something that is made by brains and hands of our people. Therefore, things are difficult for us right now”.

According to the head of state, it is also important that Belarusian-Russian integration contributes to the preservation of unity in the entire Eurasian space. “It is the historical significance of Belarusian-Russian relations in modern conditions. Together with Russians we were the first to embark upon such a deep integration after the Soviet Union collapse, a level of integration that we have reached neither in the Customs Union nor in the Single Economic Space,” said the Belarusian leader.

“Today we put consistent efforts, we work together for the sake of creating the Eurasian Economic Union. I would like to underline that these processes are not a meaningless phrase. Thanks to tight economic, political, and other ties between our states we already have an excellent opportunity to sell merchandise on the huge market and to protect interests of our countries against external threats together. If we feel brotherly shoulder, it is easier to go through new political and economic challenges and a lot of them are ahead,” noted Alexander Lukashenko.

The head of state remarked that every year competition gets tougher across the globe, the strong ones dictate their terms to the entire world and often disregard not only international norms but basic logic and any kind of decency. “They bring about global cataclysms, go for military incursions and blatant interference in internal affairs of sovereign nations. They seed chaos that bears fruit as streams of human blood and destruction,” said the President.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko at the press conference held for Russian regional mass mediaAlexander Lukashenko underlined that Belarus is a peaceful country that has lived through a lot of hardships in its history. “But nobody can reproach us for making problems primarily for our neighbors. We work alone to build our sovereign independent state. We are open to cooperation with everyone, who understands us and is ready to respect our national interests. I am convinced that Russia understands that a friendly and rapidly developing Belarus is a reliable ally in the modern unpredictable world,” stated the Belarusian leader.

In his words, Belarus highly appreciates the support and fruitful cooperation with its strategic partner in economic, defense, foreign trade, social, cultural affairs. “We have a lot of positive examples in each avenue of integration. Certainly, there are certain forces in Belarus and Russia that oppose such integration processes, doing their best to impede them and complicate the rapprochement of our countries. We move on despite their efforts,” said Alexander Lukashenko.

The head of state remarked that during the current media tour the Russian reporters visited a factory, in which Russian investments had been poured. “There are a total of over 2,500 enterprises with Russian capital in Belarus. The number rises all the time as well as the volume of our mutual trade. The fact that between 1996 and 2012 the trade turnover has increased by nearly 600% - from $6.5 billion to $44 billion — vividly confirms it. The comparatively small Belarus is Russia’s second largest foreign trade partner among the CIS states and the sixth largest trade partner among all the countries of the world,” stated the President.

“If the present impressive trend continues in the near future we are quite capable of raising the trade turnover to $50 billion,” the Belarusian leader is convinced.

The head of state also mentioned that nobody had made special preparations to improve the state of affairs for the arrival of the reporters. The reporters did not visit some agro-towns or factories designed to show things off beyond the current state of affairs. “You have seen the real picture, the way Belarus lives every day. We are proud of our accomplishments but don’t hide the shortcomings and there are many of those. Nobody can have an easy life in the modern world,” concluded Alexander Lukashenko.

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