Lukashenko thanks Russia for support, pledges to return the favour

<p> MINSK, Dec 29 - PrimePress. Belarus is grateful to Russia for support and will not leave this favour unanswered. </p> <p> Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said this during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on 29 December, the Kremlin press service said. </p> <p>   </p> <p> “Naturally, you are well-informed about the situation in Belarus. I am very grateful to you, and I appreciate what you personally have done for Belarus and I appreciate the support you provide to us. I don’t want to flatter you. It's not about that. The thing is that you are very receptive to all our proposals and requests. Russian companies, the Russian government and banks meet us halfway and support us in this difficult time of sanctions,” said Lukashenko. </p> <p>   </p> <p> “There are incessant attempts to strangle us. They introduced five rounds of sanctions, and they are considering the sixth round. These sanctions make no sense and will not benefit anyone. The fact that our trade and GDP increased this year despite the sanctions and the pandemic is to a large extent due to the Russian Federation and to a lesser extent to our other friends in the international arena. I would like to sincerely thank you for that. Just remember that no matter what turn the relations could take, we will definitely return the favour, Belarusians will return the favour,” said Lukashenko. </p> <p>   </p> <p> Lukashenko noted that work was now underway to implement the agreement to approve the 28 Union programmes. “Groups have been set up in the governments to implement our agreements in the legislation of Belarus and Russia. We are working to implement the contours we have outlined to make them concrete. We are working in this direction,” he said. </p> <p>   </p> <p> Lukashenko thanked Putin for the fact that the Russian side supported cooperation in the aircraft industry. “We have both civilian and military plants in aircraft construction industry, we can do a lot for cooperation, especially since they (such projects) are in demand for the Russian aircraft industry and that new aircraft project of yours,” said Lukashenko. </p> <p>   </p> <p> As previously reported, after the August 2020 presidential election in Belarus a political crisis began. The EU, UK, US and Canada has been gradually imposing sanctions against Belarusian officials as well as individual businesses, accusing Minsk of election rigging and abuse of human rights. Western countries adopted sectoral sanctions targeting Belarus’ potash, financial, petrochemical and tobacco industries. </p> <p>   </p> <p> Upon Putin’s instruction, Russia provided Belarus with an interstate loan of $1 billion in the RUB equivalent in 2020. The first tranche arrived in December 2020, and the second in June 2021. In 2020, Belarus also received $500 million fr om the EFSD for COVID-19 response and support for vulnerable groups. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on 9 Sep 2021 following negotiations with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that Russia’s loans to Belarus for the period from September 2021 and until the end of 2022 will amount to about $630-640 million. Belarus’ First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolay Snopkov informed on 16 Dec 2021 that Belarus would turn to Russia and the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) for new loans worth $3.5 billion in total. In September 2020, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) reported that Belarus had a credit lim it of about $1.98 billion at the EFSD and had fully used it up. End </p>

2021-12-30

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