The partnership with this region is developing quite well. The trade turnover has doubled compared with the pandemic year and is approaching a billion dollars. And there is plenty of room for deepening cooperation in many areas: from food supplies to industrial cooperation and import substitution, which is now a special focus of cooperation with Russia. And, as Alexander Lukashenko announced, these are the topics he intends to discuss with Vladimir Putin in the near future.
As the President stated "we have an urge to increase trade turnover, and there are large reserves. It is curiously enough but the most important reserve we have is the sanctions".
Alexander Lukashenko:
These sanctions even made us tend to our own affairs and avoid looking around. To see not only what is good outside, but to create something good at home. They talk about sanctions all the time, but I think more and more about the West, which unconsciously has promoted an intense development of cooperation between Russia and Belarus. If someone is ready to join us, they will get substantial benefits.The head of state also emphasized that the effect will not be fast, because it takes up time to adjust the economy of the states. It is not easy to turn such a machine because there are many branches.
