22 February, Sochi /BELTA/. A meeting between President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and President of Russia Vladimir Putin is underway in Sochi, BELTA correspondent reports.
22 February, Sochi /BELTA/. A meeting between President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and President of Russia Vladimir Putin is underway in Sochi, BELTA correspondent reports.
The head of the Belarusian state noted a phrase from Vladimir Putin's opening remarks that it is a rarity nowadays for heads of state to meet face-to-face. "I think we will continue this format of communication. Serious negotiations in casual clothes (informal nature of negotiations. - BELTA's note) - this indicates that we are simply close people, we have very close peoples and countries. And we can discuss our serious problems in any form," said Alexander Lukashenko.
According to him, there is no need to invent anything, as the parties have done a lot, and work has been carried out at the government level. The President recalled that about 30 areas for cooperation development, roadmaps, were previously identified. And earlier, the heads of state, meeting in Sochi, agreed that the governments of the two countries would work on them - update and modernise them. "Indeed, the governments have done a lot. Both Russia and Belarus. They have updated the format. Ambassador Semashko reported to me today that there are perhaps 6-7 roadmaps left (they are now called differently, they have been rebranded) that our governments are working on. All the others are, in principle, ready for signing. Therefore, there is an action plan," the Belarusian leader stated.
Alexander Lukashenko also thanked the Russian leader for the support that the Russian side provides to the Belarusian economy. "I must inform you that this is not in vain. The money has not been thrown to the wind," he stressed.
The head of state noted in this regard that at least half of Belarus's trade turnover is tied to Russia, and relatively small Belarus is Russia's fourth most important trading partner. The country consumes a lot of Russian components and raw materials. "Therefore, thank you. Know that we have not thrown money to the wind. We are investing in final production, purchasing a huge amount of raw materials and components from Russia. And this volume is constantly growing. And if we implement the planned projects, which we approved for 5 years, then imports from Russia will significantly increase," the Belarusian leader stated.
Alexander Lukashenko explained that the full commissioning of the Belarusian NPP will save approximately 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Nevertheless, the demand for this raw material as a whole will not decrease, taking into account the plans for the construction of a new nitrogen plant in Grodno. "And this is natural gas. Therefore, we will still consume natural gas in ever-increasing volumes. A project worth 1.2 - 1.3 billion, - said the President. - A new plant. We have experience. We already have one operating there. Therefore, we want to increase the production of nitrogen fertilizers. If you give us the instruction to work through the issue, we are ready to implement this project with Gazprom."
Alexander Lukashenko also expressed words of gratitude for cooperation in the field of education, in particular, for the training of students from Belarus in Russian universities. "Although we have a decent level of education, young people actively use the universities of the Russian Federation to get a decent education," he said.
In this regard, the President also touched upon the currently relevant topic of combating coronavirus and vaccine production. He noted the achievements of Russian scientists in this area. "I always say: we also have a bit of it from Soviet times - vaccine production. You already have three registered vaccines. And more are under development. We are also following this path. By autumn, we will have our own vaccine too, we have specialists. But now we are actively buying from you. This topic - vaccines - speaks of the highest level of science in the Russian Federation. And there is no science without education. This has greatly influenced our young people in terms of studying in the Russian Federation. Well, and young people from Russia come here. Here, thank God, there are no barriers," noted Alexander Lukashenko.
"Thank you for listening to my request and opening railway traffic between the two countries, increasing the throughput and the ability for our citizens to travel back and forth through the air gates. I think the moment is not far off when we will open road traffic as well. We have no problems. We are not closed here," said the head of the Belarusian state. He noted that Russia had sent specialists to Belarus who were convinced that the countries were at approximately the same level of incidence. "Fortunately, the incidence has now begun to decline sharply. God willing, by autumn or perhaps by summer, we will be closer to zero," added the President of Belarus.
Vladimir Putin, speaking about the cooperation between the two countries, emphasized that financial support issues are, of course, important, but they are far from the main thing. "The main thing is joint work and cooperation in the real sector of the economy. Our trade turnover did fall slightly during the epidemic period, by about 15%. But it still amounted to $28.5 billion. This is a very significant figure," he said.
The heads of state continued their conversation while skiing.
BelTA