Lukashenka to European Commissioner: “Financial resources and loans are most important for us”

The Belarusian ruler stated there were conditions to develop partner relations with the European Union.

“Our desire to establish good relations with you is sincere, though someone doesn’t like this,” Alyaksandr Lukashenka told in Minsk at a meeting with European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

“I think you won’t regret about your visit to Belarus,” Lukashenka told. He added: “I’d like to have an absolutely sincere and honest dialogue,” Interfax reports.

The Belarusian dictator told: “There are politicians who think Lukashenka is playing with Europe but he is not going to change anything in the country and in the relations with Europe.” “I never afforded to be mean during the years of my presidential term. Maybe, I don’t look like a diplomat in white shirts, but I think politics must be honest. It’s better to tell the truth even if it doesn’t profitable for you, because lie will be revealed later and it will be difficult to settle the situation,” Lukashenka noted.

In this respect, “I am ready to answer any inconvenient questions you have,” the Belarusian ruler said.

According to him, “much depends on this meeting”. “What do we want from Europe? We want you to understand that Belarus is not only a geographical center of the continent, it is the country where honest, fair, and hard-working people live. Here is a sovereign independent state,” Lukashenka said.

He emphasized: “It is great heritage of any people, and we can’t allow anyone to entrench upon sovereignty and independence.” “We’d like to have normal relations with the European continent,” the Belarusian ruler said.

Lukashenka underlined that “the European Union is our neighbour, trade with the EU amounts to 50 per cent in our total volume of trade, we have positive trade balance.” “You are adaptable to streamlined production methods. This (the EU – Interfax) is the most producible center of the planet. Our economy is also effective, we can’t develop our economy without cooperation with you,” Lukashenka noted.

Besides, “financial resources, loans and financing are also important for us.”

“What can we propose to the scale of our relations with Europe?” he wondered. “Euroope can’t exist without its heart (Belarus – Interfax). Moreover, we are a link, a bridge between such giants as the European Union and Russia,” Lukashenka told.

He stated that “main oil and gas pipes as well as automobile and rail arteries go via Belarus.” “They are in good working order, far better than our neighbours have,” Lukashenka said.

He also drew attention to safety measures. “It is important now, you never complained we failed to secure basic elements of the EU safety. We combat illegal migration, drug trafficking, and trafficking of radioactive materials,” the ruler said.

Lukashenka also stated that “the situation in the country is absolutely stable, we have no religious and national conflicts.” The Belarusian ruler thinks he creates “the basis suitable for our further relations”. Ferrero-Waldner said in turn it was the first visit of a European commissioner to Minsk. Lukashenka responded to that “and not the last, I hope.”

According to the European commissioner, the visit was symbolic. It symbolizes the potential of the EU-Belarus relations, Ferrero-Waldner said.

The European commissioner said the EU and Belarus stood at the crossroads of Europe, where cooperation should be two-way. If the Belarusian side shows movement, the potential in our relations will be implemented.

Ferrero-Waldner reminded that the EU member states had addressed Belarus calling to fulfil a number of conditions.

The European commissioner noted that some of the conditions had been fulfilled that allowed Europe to review its approaches towards Belarus.

She added that some of the requests hadn’t been implemented. Ferrero-Waldner said the EU would be ready to establish cooperation with Belarus if it demonstrated such a desire.

The Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy noted that the EU respected sovereignty of Belarus and its history and understood the difficult role of a bridge between East and West.