Meeting with Prime Minister Aleksandr Turchin

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Prime Minister Aleksandr Turchin to receive his report on 4 April.

“As for the upcoming visit to Russia, [Deputy Prime Minister Viktor] Karankevich was present at the talks. He was the main person from the government, he outlined approaches, raised issues that should be solved in relations with Russia. President Putin supported us on all the issues, including financial matters, oil pricing and so on. We were talking about adjusting the Russian oil prices so that our enterprises could operate as necessary. We do not need huge profitability there. 7-8% is enough,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
 
According to the President, Vladimir Putin has already given the relevant instructions to the Rosneft head Igor Sechin.

“I say this to stress that everyone is aware of all these issues. They received approval during the talks. During the forthcoming visit, we should ask the Russian government to finally resolve all these matters, because certain instructions have already been given to the Russian government,” the head of state emphasized.
 
“As for the number of strategic issues the decisions on which have already been made, it is necessary to see how we are delivering here. If there are any shortcomings on our side or on the Russian side, it should be noted. We will consider some issues at the meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State, if necessary. But it's better to solve everything at the level of the two governments,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “Therefore, these issues, which will be very important during this visit, should be resolved without delay. All decisions have been made, but we are used to postponing until later. There is no time to postpone them any longer.”

Aleksandr Turchin briefed the President on the recent phone talks with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin. “There is going to be a fairly representative team from the Russian government. We are grateful for this. We need to discuss all the key issues, areas of interaction. I think there is mutual understanding. Thank you for supporting our team of negotiators. Everyone is well aware of the issues to be discussed,” the Prime minister said.