‘No tourist trips! There must be a result’

The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has held a meeting to discuss international issues

BELTA

The Head of State noted that the international agenda remains extremely intense. The schedule of international meetings has been quite busy lately. All this requires utmost focus on the past and upcoming events. Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that Belarus is doing the right thing by expanding co-operation with foreign countries and building long-term partnerships. At the same time, the President criticised the government for the lack of efficiency and persistence in implementing certain agreements reached at the highest level.

“Let’s agree that the role of the President is to open a window of opportunities, to lay groundwork, to pave the way for agreements between members of the government and prime ministers. The government, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the supervision of the Belarus President Administration, must implement these agreements. Not to mention the arrangements reached by government members during their trips,” the Head of State said outlining the tasks.

“There should be no tourist trips. No tourism. There must be a result,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasised. The purpose of the meeting, according to the President, was to compare notes, thrash out short-term plans to implement the agreements reached during visits to individual countries.
The President commented on the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Island of Valaam. Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that his job is to build a solid foundation for relations with Russia, resolve both strategic matters and tactical issues. The government is tasked with developing co-operation and negotiating on various aspects.
The President noted that there were three main issues that remained unresolved at the government level and that were discussed at the meeting with the Russian President: a new oil pricing formula, recycling fee and prepayment for oil. “As is usually the case, you have left some issues unresolved together with the Russian government: the oil formula (new pricing formula), the recycling fee and the prepayment for oil,” the President said as he addressed the participants of the meeting. “We have discussed all these issues with President Putin. We have agreed that today or tomorrow — depending on how soon you prepare it — I will send him a letter, outlining our position on these three issues,” the Head of State explained.
As for the prepayment for oil, which is mainly supplied to Belarus by Rosneft, the Russian President got even frustrated with this issue. “What kind of prepayment? We have been working without prepayment all our lives and we can continue to work this way,” the Belarusian leader shared the reaction of his Russian colleague. 
Security issues were central to the agenda of the talks. “These issues are not discussed in public,” the President noted. “All security, law enforcement and defence agencies, and ministers are involved, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — on certain issues.”
“This is the essence of these negotiations. I emphasise once again: mutual understanding has been found on all issues. We are on board with each other on all issues,” the Head of State summarised.
“In the autumn, in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the Union State Treaty, Minsk will host most important events: a meeting of the Union State Council of Ministers and a session of the Supreme State Council. We have agreed with the President [of Russia] that we settle all outstanding issues by that time: both the issues in the remit of our Security Councils [the agreement on security guarantees] and in the remit of the governments,” the Belarusian leader underscored.
Addressing Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, the President pointed out, “In addition to the current agenda — recycling fee, localisation of passenger cars, oil refining — you should keep an eye on the strategic tasks in terms of new industries and competencies for the Belarusian economy: aircraft building, microelectronics, machine tool building.” 
“You remember the agreements we reached with President Putin during his latest visit to Minsk. Back then he said and I quote ‘Belarus should be an independent, self-sufficient country with a sustainable economic basis’,” the Head of State said. Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Parkhomchik, new ministers and the ambassador to Russia will report on the status of economic interaction with Russia.
Aleksandr Lukashenko drew special attention of the participants of the meeting to the concrete results that the Union State has generated for ordinary people by its 25th anniversary landmark. The President recalled the assignment to the Standing Committee of the Union State to analyse all aspects regarding equal rights of citizens and urged to pay more attention to solving everyday problems that citizens of Belarus and Russia still face. This is what the Standing Committee under the leadership of Dmitry Mezentsev should be focused on, the President is convinced.
“A lot has been done, but the problems are still many,” the Head of State said and named some of them: inspections at airports, roaming that has not been cancelled so far, unavailability of rail tickets on holidays (due to lack of train services). “Who is responsible for solving these issues?” the President addressed the meeting. 
Aleksandr Lukashenko also touched upon the project to set up a media holding company of the Union State, noting that this work should be significantly intensified.
The Head of State recalled that in July 2024, Belarus took part in the SCO summit in Astana in a new status — as a member of this organisation. A number of bilateral meetings have been held. “Those meetings were good. Specific agreements were reached there. Let’s bring them to fruition,” the Belarusian leader noted.
“We must immediately draw a strategy to move towards the goals we have outlined. We should not waste time. Enormous prospects are opening up — first of all, additional opportunities to get access to a huge market of goods and services, exchange expertise and knowledge, attract investments, diversify logistics and payments, reduce political risks. I set out all Belarusian initiatives in Astana,” the President said.
The Head of State recalled that Belarus was invited to attend the upcoming BRICS summit in Kazan. This serious organisation has the world’s power players in its ranks. BRICS member states account for more than 40 percent of the world’s population, as the President noted. “We are interested in joining integration processes in this area. BRICS can help us maintain balance and economic stability,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The President instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to draft a plan for Belarus’ participation in this platform and its bilateral meetings.
South Africa is one of the members of BRICS, and the Belarusian Head of State believes that co-operation with this country holds a lot of promise. The President remarked that South Africa could be added to the list of Belarus’ partners on the African continent. These include, for example, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria in the west of the continent, Kenya in the east, Zimbabwe and Mozambique in the south.

“We do not need to spread ourselves too thin across all continents. I want to reiterate: we do not have the kind of economy to have presence all over the world. We need to set priorities right and get laser focused on them,” the Belarusian leader emphasised.

Speaking about the BRICS summit, Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled the initiative of delegates of the Belarusian People’s Congress to prepare an appeal for peace on behalf of the Congress and submit it to BRICS for consideration. “Study it and report back,” the President said. “Belarus is preparing to host a number of important visits. As you know, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Li Qiang will visit us soon,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.

Based on materials of sb.by and belta.by