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Lukashenko: Belarus can easily increase trade with China

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MINSK, 1 August (BelTA) - Belarus can easily increase trade with China, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to China Yuri Senko on 1 August, BelTA has learned.

“China helped us a lot and now we are posting a considerable increase in mutual trade and are also getting new opportunities. We can easily increase trade with China. I often told Xi Jinping that if this huge Chinese locomotive takes Belarus as an extra car, it will not even notice that. Because China is such a gigantic economy. It is good that we have such relations in diplomacy, politics. I have very good personal relations with Xi Jinping's family too,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.

According to Yuri Senko, Belarus and China demonstrate full understanding by cooperating at all international platforms. “In the area of economic relations (I come to the conclusion, and it is evident from the mood of our Belarusian enterprises) we simply have unique opportunities to increase the pace of work with China, which, in fact, has been done for the last (I am not afraid of mentioning this figure) seven years since China announced its Belt and Road initiative. It was a serious boost when Belarus joined this initiative and actively started working with China at an increasing pace,” the ambassador said.

Another project that gave an impetus to the development of cooperation between the two countries was the Great Stone Industrial Park. The agreements of the leaders of Belarus and China on the Year of Regions and the presidential directive on the development of bilateral relations with China also made a significant contribution, the diplomat said. “This is a very important signal for China as to how Belarus treats the country and what our strategic intentions are,” Yuri Senko said.

China is traditionally one of the top three trade partners of Belarus. According to the data of 2021, foreign trade reached a record $5.9 billion. In January-May 2022, the trade between Belarus and China was almost $2 billion. Belarus supplies potash fertilizers, food and agricultural products and timber to the People’s Republic of China.

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