As he met with MGIMO University students in Moscow, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxim Ryzhenkov explained what genuine independence means,
BelTA has learned.
The minister stated that Belarus and Russia have to respond to illegitimate Western sanctions and enable conditions conducive to further development of the two countries. “It has led to the intensification of Belarusian-Russian relations. I guess that our mutual trade turnover has increased by 1.8 times over the last five years. At present our export to Russia can go as high as 65% of the total export,” he said.
According to Maxim Ryzhenkov, Belarus and Russia have started implementing an entire series of innovative projects, developing the technologies where competences have been absent or have been practically lost. “Over three years Belarus and the Russian Federation pooled what they had (primarily competences and specialists) to set up entire development clusters, placed orders with enterprises in the territories of the two countries and now get products of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. And we understand that we do not depend on anyone in the West at present and things will only get better from now on. And we will follow down this path because it is what genuine independence is all about,” the Belarusian minister of foreign affairs stated.