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Lukashenko discusses alternative delivery schemes for Belarus’ exports

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko asked to update him on the progress in exploring alternative routes of delivering Belarusian products abroad as he met with Transport and Communications Minister Aleksei Avramenko and Vice-Premier Anatoly Sivak who is in charge of this area, BelTA has learned.

“What I want to learn about is alternative schemes of delivering our products,” the head of state said.

A reminder, at the meeting to discuss Belarus’ foreign policy priorities held on 20 July Aleksandr Lukashenko said that Belarus’ number one priority was export promotion. “We are a small, open country with an export-oriented economy. We will not survive without exports. Do not fret over the so-called sectoral sanctions. There is always a demand for our goods. We just need to make a little more effort. If we have good sales, then the sanctions will not be a problem. We should work harder to turn them ineffective, unnoticeable for the Belarusians,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “We should act towards those who resort to economic warfare in the same way as we acted towards street action participants in August-September,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The Belarusian president raised this topic during the meeting with representatives of the general public, experts, and mass media titled as the Big Conversation with the President on 9 August. Back then Aleksandr Lukashenko commented on Lithuania’s threats to stop the transit of Belarusian potash fertilizers: “They’ve started inventing things. Shot themselves in the foot. And now they want to prevent us from using their ports for shipping chemical potash fertilizers.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko said that Belarus will reroute shipments to other ports, to ports in the Russian territory then. “Listen, we will deliver these volumes. We will ship them through Murmansk. Not a problem. And we will deliver them to China via the shortest Northern Sea Route. It is our main market. And to India, the southeast. We have to find a way out of this situation now before we drive each other into a corner. But the ball is on the other side,” he said.