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Lukashenko: Belarus will build port near St. Petersburg

MOSCOW, 18 February (BelTA) – Belarus will build its port near St. Petersburg, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko told the media following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 18 February, BelTA has learned.

"I am grateful to Vladimir Vladimirovich for giving relevant instructions following my request. We need a port. In violation of international agreements, they closed access to routes and ports where we worked. This is a violation of international norms: if a state does not have access to the sea, the states that have such access have no right to close it. It's a violation. I asked the Russian president to help us with this, to ensure there is no red tape, bureaucracy; it's not about money, we have money for this. The Russian president gave a relevant instruction so that we could build our own port near St. Petersburg and transship millions of tonnes of cargo there," Aleksandr Lukashenko said. "Instructions were given in my presence so that we could start this construction immediately."

"We will start transshipping these millions of tonnes of cargo within a year or a year and a half (I don't know the exact timeframe as the ambassador is now dealing with this issue). But if we leave Ukraine and Lithuania, which earned 30% of budget revenues on our transit, we will not return there. We will survive," the head of state emphasized.

The president is convinced that the West would continue putting pressure on Belarus and Russia and look for every reason to wage an economic war. “Whatever the situation, sanctions are also an opportunity. The main benefit here is import substitution. We will overcome these difficulties, even in terms of the most advanced technologies. We can do everything,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

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