Foreign Minister of Belarus Vladimir Makei told RBC about the topics of upcoming talks between the leader of the republic, Alexander Lukashenko, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to him, the heads of the two states will have “good material for discussing the future of our relations.” Also, Makei did not rule out that during the meeting the presidents will touch upon the topic of interactions in the financial and credit sphere from the point of view of mutually beneficial projects. However, the minister stressed, “this does not mean that Belarus will necessarily ask for loans from Russia and ask for some kind of help.”
According to Makei, Russia and Belarus need to move along the path of joint cooperation, which will allow bringing integration to a new level. He assured that the coronavirus pandemic and protests in Belarus did not interfere with work in this direction. In addition, the minister expects that the latest events “that are taking place inside and around our countries, they can and will certainly push us towards closer integration processes in a bilateral format, and sooner or later in a multilateral format within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union.” p>
The upcoming meeting between Putin and Lukashenko became known on February 10. It was reported that the topic of discussion will be another loan to Minsk in the amount of three billion dollars in addition to the previously issued loans. The Belarusian Ministry of Finance denies such plans.
The last time Putin and Lukashenko met in September 2020 in Sochi. From there, the incumbent president of Belarus left with the promise of a loan of $ 1.5 billion. This support allowed him to survive in the midst of unprecedented protests against his rule, which began after the August 9 elections and continue to this day.