MINSK, 20 July (BelTA) – The meeting to discuss the current foreign policy priorities that was hosted by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and attended by Belarusian ambassadors was a meaningful and frank conversation, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko told journalists, BelTA has learned.
“The meeting was a meaningful and frank man-to-man talk. The president stressed that we rarely meet like this, when heads of all foreign missions get together. So we tried to make the most of it,” Roman Golovchenko noted.
According to him, the meeting was aimed at practical results. The participants discussed general matters (the overall course of Belarus' foreign policy, ways to adjust it taking into account the latest developments) and the relations with certain countries. One of the main items on the agenda was the development of Belarus' foreign trade and ways to reinforce positive tendencies in foreign trade.
Reducing the effect from the sanctions to zero would be the best response, Roman Golovchenko said when he spoke about Belarus' ability to respond to the sanctions imposed by the collective West. “So far, we have been doing fine on this front. Apart from very few areas, the world is not controlled by one or another country alone. Belarus is substituting supplies from the countries that joined the sanctions. We have also stepped up import-substitution efforts and are working to launch the production of certain goods in Belarus,” the prime minister said.
Belarus will retain foreign trade volumes, Roman Golovchenko believes.
“There is no panic, no pessimism among us. On the contrary, this has given us an additional motivation to reach the targets despite the more difficult situation,” he added.
