MINSK, 30 June (BelTA) - Belarus and Russia have achieved particular successes in the cooperation in investment, trade and economy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the media following talks with his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei in Minsk on 30 June, BelTA has learned.
According to the Russian foreign minister, the talks with Belarusian colleagues were held in a friendly, trusting atmosphere and were very substantive. The parties considered topical issues of bilateral relations, discussed the schedule of upcoming contacts, including the preparation of a joint meeting of the foreign ministries of the two countries due in the fourth quarter of this year. "We believe that Belarus and Russia have achieved particular successes in trade, economic and investment cooperation. In 2021 the trade approached $40 billion. We are implementing major joint projects such as the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, advancing industrial cooperation, setting up new production and logistics chains," Sergey Lavrov stated.
Interregional cooperation is growing stronger. In this regard, the minister mentioned the Belarusian-Russian forum running in Grodno these days that is set to conclude contracts for a record amount of about $1 billion.
Following the talks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the parties agreed to continue foreign policy coordination, jointly defend the interests of Belarus and Russia in the international arena. They also spoke in favor of intensifying cooperation in multilateral associations, primarily in the CIS, CSTO, EAEU. "Our views on the further development of Eurasian integration are almost identical," he said. “We agreed to continue coordination in other multilateral organizations, primarily in the UN, the OSCE. "
Both the countries expressed concern about NATO activities near the borders of the Union State. “We are unanimous in our opinion: such actions are blatantly confrontational in nature and lead to a further escalation of tension and a fragmentation of the European space for security and cooperation. In other words, they are heading precisely towards the results that the OSCE was set up to prevent. Today the West is destroying everything with its own hands, including the principle of indivisibility of security, which was loudly announced at the highest level of the OSCE in the late 1990s and in 2010, and according to which no state should strengthen its security at the expense of others. The West, in fact, has buried this principle by its actions,” the minister said.
“In light of the openly unfriendly steps taken by the United States and its satellites against our countries, we reaffirmed our determination to continue suppressing any attempts by the West to interfere in our internal affairs. We agreed to continue joining efforts to counter the illegitimate unilateral actions of Washington, Brussels and their allies in the international arena,” Sergey Lavrov added.
He also briefed his Belarusian counterparts on the special military operation in Ukraine. “Dialogue on these issues is regular, including at the highest level,” the foreign minister said. “We are grateful to our Belarusian allies for their full understanding of the reasons, objectives and tasks of the special military operation,” he said.
When discussing security issues, the parties paid special attention to biological security and agreed that the activity of the United States in the post-Soviet area is very dangerous and non-transparent. “We see threats to the national security of our countries. We see the unwillingness of the United States to ensure transparency of its military and biological activities in many countries, first of all around Russia and Belarus, in the post-Soviet space. We have an agreement in the CSTO to establish close transparent cooperation on these issues in order to counteract attempts to promote projects behind the scenes, which raise concerns in our countries,” said Sergey Lavrov.
