Second session of the 7th Belarusian People’s Congress

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko delivered an Address to the Belarusian people and Parliament at the second session of the 7th Belarusian People's Congress on 18 December.

"We agreed: sanctions would not be our excuse! There was no time to dwell on this topic: we had to fight for every export ruble. In 2020, we set the target of reaching $50 billion in exports. In the end, we not only reached this figure, but also continued trading with nearly 190 countries worldwide," the Belarusian leader emphasized.

"The West overlooked one thing: the world is vast! No one will dance to the neocolonial tune anymore. The Global South and Asia have become the new reality. Today, our agricultural machinery and trucks, dairy and meat products, tires and components are being exported to the Middle East, Africa, China, and Latin America. The list of goods is impressive," Aleksandr Lukashenko stated.

The head of state recalled that 2025 is the final year of the current five-year plan. "It is significant for us, given that the current socio-economic development program was drafted and adopted amid an unprecedentedly aggressive global agenda and a political and economic reshaping of the world that continues to this day and is gaining momentum."

Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled a series of events that Belarus had to face in a short period of time. One of them was the COVID lockdown, which was a pandemic that put vital economic processes on hold, including the supply of goods, production chains, established logistics, and transport flows.

This was followed by illegal sanctions imposed by the Western countries against Belarus, including the European Union's closure of airspace for Belavia, the disconnection from the SWIFT system, blocked access to seaports, trade embargoes, and border closures.

"All together, not the best backdrop for ambitious tasks," the President noted.

Aleksandr Lukashenko said: "We have dismantled the myth created by the West about the closed nature and isolation of our country. Any world rankings confirm it. Belarus has become one of the top 50 destinations visited by tourists (the 48th position."

The head of state remarked that this year alone over 250,000 "enlightened" Europeans, who have come to Belarus thanks to the visa waiver, have personally made sure of the coziness and the beauty of Belarus. "And that happened despite the fact that more than half of the border crossings were closed," Aleksandr Lukashenko stated.