A. Lukashenko: strategic, allied relations with Russia are our conscious choice

July 26, Minsk /BELTA/. Russia is a natural, historically formed strategic partner of Belarus. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated this in an interview with the Syrian newspaper "Al-Watan," as reported by a BELTA correspondent. "We have a multi-billion dollar trade turnover and a widest range of cooperation areas," the President said. According to him, the opportunities for deepening cooperation with Russia should further increase with the creation of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. "If, of course, this union works fully, without exceptions and restrictions. By the way, this is an exceptionally interesting project for Syrian business, which gets the opportunity through Belarus to have virtually unimpeded access to a market of 170 million people," Alexander Lukashenko noted. Strategic, allied relations with Russia are a conscious choice of Belarus. Therefore, the head of state noted, while developing relations with other partners, "we have never acted and will not act to the detriment of Russia." "After all, we are essentially one people with a common history," he said. As for relations with the EU, according to Alexander Lukashenko, they have recently begun to change for the better. "After all, the European Union is a neighbor with whom we have a long common border, one of the main consumers of Belarusian exports, an important partner in a number of areas of common interest - from science and technology to combating common threats: illegal migration, cross-border crime. Certain progress in relations with the EU is not a change of focus, but a result of the implementation of our previously formulated long-term goal - to pursue a multi-vector foreign policy. I think the topic of our dialogue with the EU played a significant role in the exacerbation of Belarusian-Russian relations. And this is all the more surprising because our Russian colleagues themselves actively urged us to establish relations with the EU," the President emphasized. The head of state noted that "we see the desire of large Russian capital to acquire choice pieces of the Belarusian economy that belong to our people." "Yes, the long duration of the relationship between Belarus and Russia, our boundless faith in the honesty and loyalty of our partner have led to our dependence on Russia in terms of raw materials, which until recently was our almost monopolistic supplier of hydrocarbon raw materials. Our partners have simply begun to exploit this, trying to push their interests in Belarus. Using methods of economic blackmail for political purposes, using tools of information warfare. But any dictate is unacceptable. I hope that Moscow will eventually understand this," Alexander Lukashenko said. Belarus has always been an initiator and active driver of integration processes. "To be honest, the Union of Belarus and Russia is largely alive thanks to the fact that it is Belarus that prevents this creative fire from dying out. We supported the creation of a customs union with Russia and Kazakhstan, although we understand that it is largely beneficial for Russia. Belarus has not yet felt the effect from it. But we took this step to develop the idea of integration," the Belarusian leader added.