Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko: Belarus keeps going despite sanctions

MINSK, 19 July (BelTA) – Belarus is going on despite the sanctions against it, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with Sky News Arabia, BelTA has learned.

Answering the question about the impact of the sanctions on Belarus, the head of state noted that they came as no surprise  and the response to them had been elaborated in advance. “Of course, sanctions are unpleasant for any country. I admit it. But we realized that sooner or later these sanctions would be introduced. They were imposed against our individuals (these are 150-200 real patriots of our country) who run the country and defend it, and against our biggest companies. For what? In order to destroy our economy. We expected this and prepared for this,” the Belarusian leader explained.

According to him, the country’s economy has been growing steadily since the beginning of this year. “In H1 2021, the gross domestic product in Belarus expanded by about 3.5%. This is more than we planned last year,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The president stressed that Belarus has always sought to develop trade and economic relations with various countries, and in this context Western Europe was not the only or the priority market for domestic enterprises. “They imposed sanctions against our enterprises, but in fact they had blocked market access for these Belarusian enterprises for a long time. That’s all there is to democracy and international trade. Therefore, we have been promoting  cooperation with your region, with Central Asia. But our main partner is Russia,” the head of state said in the interview.

“We keep going. We are looking into what other sanctions they can come up with and are preparing for this. Meanwhile, our GDP has added 3.5%,” the Belarusian leader said.

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