MINSK, 3 September (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia have secured considerable progress in resolving painful problems. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement as he met with Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin on 3 September, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “I am deeply grateful to you for the last few weeks or even one month, a month and a half, during which the governments have been in intensive negotiations. We reached the relevant agreement with President of Russia Vladimir Putin even before the presidential election. Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko told me yesterday that you've secured considerable progress in resolving painful problems for us.”
“I say more and more often, it is visible and tangible in our country due to individual hits of the so-called opposition of ours, I don't know what else to call it, I don't understand completely yet what to call it all. Nevertheless, it is a lesson for us,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.
The president stressed that this lesson should encourage two brotherly countries – Belarus and Russia – to make the relevant conclusions. “We could come to terms on many issues we couldn't agree on in the past. You and the prime minister of Belarus have done a huge amount of work to reconcile our views and even reach an agreement on many terms,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stated.
In his words, Aleksandr Lukashenko and President of Russia Vladimir Putin have agreed that they will meet in Moscow after the meeting of the Belarusian and Russian ministers of foreign affairs on 2 September and the arrival of Mikhail Mishustin in Minsk. “And we will make final decisions on the matters that are very sensitive and painful for the two countries,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stated.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also thanked Mikhail Mishustin for Russia's assistance at a time of need and a serious contribution to the stabilization of at least the economy. “Very serious. Particularly in people's minds there has been a revolution that we don't want Russia to turn away from us in these difficult times as a brotherly country and our main economic partner and target market (we sell nearly half of everything to Russia),” the Belarusian leader concluded.
