Minsk - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attributes the development of an alliance with Russia to Belarusian foreign policy priorities and stresses the need for mutually-beneficial cooperation with Russian territories.
“The course of further developing an alliance with the Russian Federation, and mutually-beneficial cooperation with its regions, is the main priority of our foreign policy,” he said at a Friday meeting in Minsk with Leningrad region governor Alexander Drozdenko.
He said that with the formation of the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan and also the Common Economic Space “the role of the trade and economic component of Belarusian-Russian relations will grow further.”
Lukashenko stressed the contribution of the leadership of Russian regions to the establishment and advancement of the Union State. “In hard times it was you who saved our relations and it is not clear what they would have been like, but for the position of the regions,” he said.
He called Leningrad region an important trade partner for Belarus among Russian regions, noting that in the past few years the volume of bilateral trade has grown. However, he admitted that the sides have failed so far to return to the pre-crisis level and that their cooperation is not on par with the existing potential.
