Meeting with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Lukashenko,

I am very glad to meet with you again. It seems that we saw each other not so long ago, but, as I always say in such situations, the dynamics of our relationship are such that new things are coming up all the time that we need to pay attention to, agree on, and adjust.

Still, in general, I would like to point out that - you know it better than anyone else - our main area of cooperation, trade and economic relations, is developing successfully, despite all attempts from the outside to influence it in some way. After all, according to our statistics, the trade of nearly 50 - in fact, 52 billion dollars last year is a good indicator. And in the first six months of this year - a further 12.5 percent increase, 4.5 billion in direct investment from Russia, and 2,500 enterprises with Russian participation.

And what is most important, to my mind, and of the greatest significance, is that we are cooperating not only in traditional areas, but also in areas that are particularly important today: namely, high technology. And here I would like to reiterate that, thanks to your long-standing efforts, Belarus has preserved and built upon much of what was created back in the days of the Soviet Union, and now, jointly, we can continue to move forward in these areas, including microelectronics and some other areas.

We are very glad to see you. I know that you were already quite busy yesterday working within the Government of the Russian Federation, with your colleagues and mine from the Russian Government. Now, in the course of our discussion today, we shall summarise some of the outcomes. If there is anything that needs to be added or amended, we shall do just so.

And we continue to play an active role in the international arena while strengthening the Union State. I believe that a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State is due to take place in the near future.

We are working on all platforms, including the UN and the organisations in which we have been actively involved from the outset: the CIS, the SCO and others. All of this, of course, will also be on our agenda today.

Welcome.

To be continued.