Aleksandr Lukashenko meets with Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Government Dmitry Rogozin

Belarus and Russia are ready to expand military –industrial cooperation. The statement was made at the meeting between President of the Republic of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko and Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government, Chairman of the Defense Industries Commission under the Russian Federation government.

Aleksandr Lukashenko told Dmitry Rogozin: “I am very pleased to see you in Minsk as a person close to me in ideology and in soul. Then we have a number of state matters to discuss. We seem to have some problems in this regard. Frankly speaking, I can say that we don’t really like the situation evolving around us”. The head of state continued: “In this regard we have clearly and definitely stated that we should be closer to each other. In any situation we will be together with Russia. All kinds of speculations about it must be stopped”.

Aleksandr Lukashenko said that for instance, the Americans “bombed Iraq to bits and after the bombing everyone understood that it was a wrong move, an unfair one, yet they sided with the allies”.

“Why should we act differently if Russia is our ally and is the only ally? That’s the entire logic of it,” the President remarked. In his words, there are also other factors to consider. “This is why we act depending on the situation to honor interests of our state and interests of our only strategic ally of this kind,” the President stressed.

“We don’t hide the fact that we work very hard to advance cooperation in military and technical sphere,” continued the head of state. “We are modernizing our defense industries, trying to make new products at our enterprises. But since there are only several dozens of high-tech enterprises, we understand that the modernization will be more effective if they are coupled with Russian defense industries”. Aleksandr Lukashenko believes that “due to the peculiar nature of the products they will be in demand primarily in our Russia”. “We understand it perfectly well,” the Belarus Presidentsaid.

Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia is interested in developing military and industrial cooperation with Belarus. He stressed that the major goal of his visit is to see what else can be done in the military and industrial cooperation.

In his words, it is important to continue the work which has been started. Dmitry Rogozin stated that several months ago the Defense Industries Commission held a joint meeting to discuss with Belarusian representatives the system of mutual stable cooperation in order “to make everyone understand how many years this work will require and to plan the development of the manufacturing sector.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko and Dmitry Rogozin also discussed the situation in Ukraine. According to the Vice Premier, it is a sensitive matter for him as he lived in Kyiv for some time. The Vice Premier reminded the Belarusian head of state that following the instructions of the Russian President he led a delegation of Russian industrialists in a recent visit to Ukraine. “We have toured the east of Ukraine, visited Kyiv, held fruitful talks and it is extremely hurtful today to see that all we had worked on with Ukrainian partners is destroyed by the Ukrainian side in an act out of spite,” Dmitry Rogozin said.

The Russian official stressed: “We enjoy great support from Belarusian industrialists, and the goal of the current visit is to see what we can do given the present situation.”