Meeting with senior officials of Council of Ministers

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko outlined the tasks to address the most pressing issues on the current agenda at a meeting with the leadership of the Council of Ministers in Minsk on 11 November.

The head of state, in particular, set the tasks for the agricultural sector, spoke about the pressing situation with migrants on the border, gave instructions to respond to the Western sanctions against Belarus, spoke about the treatment of coronavirus patients in Belarus. A number of other issues were also on the agenda of the meeting, including the reform of entrepreneurial activity.

First of all, the head of state touched upon the harvesting campaign, the autumn and spring field works. The head of state urged to do everything in a qualitative and prompt manner, in the optimal time frame. Food prices are high in general. This, according to Aleksandr Lukashenko, will help famers to improve and strengthen their financial situation. Special emphasis should be made on the maintenance and repair of farm vehicles for the spring planting campaign, while the strategic task for the near future is land reclamation.

Aleksandr Lukashenko could not ignore the situation on the border with migrants. He instructed to provide assistance to refugees at the border, especially pregnant women and children. In particular, the head of state instructed to bring them dry firewood.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been tasked with raising the issue in the UN and other international organizations.

The head of state also gave clear instructions in the field of border security. "The Defense Ministry, the KGB, the border troops are to ensure control over the movement of troops of NATO and Poland.

You can already see 15,000 troops, tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters and planes brought to our border without any warning,” the Belarusian leader said.

The head of state also mentioned attempts to bring weapons and ammunition to the migrants' camp in order to provoke a conflict.

Sanctions were another topic discussed at the meeting. “They started scaring us with the fifth package. As for the fifth package, Roman Aleksandrovich [Golovchenko, Prime Minister of Belarus], you have been given the relevant instructions: we must not forgive them anything,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also spoke about the epidemic situation in Belarus. Despite the recession in COVID-19 cases, no one can feel complacent, he stressed.

The President emphasized the need for the clinics that had previously been repurposed to treat patients with coronavirus to gradually resume their routine operations.

A number of other issues were considered at the meeting as well. “They have been put forward for separate discussion as some additional questions arose in regard to them,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

One of these topics were entrepreneurial reforms. The President said that the task had been set to increase participation of SMEs in financing state expenditures. The government has worked out certain approaches and submitted the draft decree “On the activity of SMEs” for the approval of the head of state.

The participants of the meeting also discussed the provision of state support to Amkodor and the construction of a new educational building of the Belarusian State University.