Lukashenko believes import substitution is fundamental in co-operation with Russia
The President of Belarus has today met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Belarus, Boris Gryzlov
In the beginning of the meeting, Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the issues of oil and gas, supplies of goods and other aspects have always been high on the Belarus-Russia agenda.
“As I note, there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped: these issues are now being resolved. However, this is probably not the main thing for us now in our relationship. I am considering these problems, and we will discuss them seriously again when we meet with the President of Russia. Import substitution is a very important issue. There are many competencies in Belarus and Russia, but – for certain reasons – they have failed to develop in the way they should. But, thank God, these competencies do exist,” the Head of State said.
As an example, Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned the products of Integral and similar enterprises in Russia, “We have serious groundwork. For example, Horizont manufactures many products for the aircraft industry; and even Russians did not know about them – as I was recently informed. When we showed these products in Russia, everyone was surprised there that they are available. They are related to the control of spacecraft, aircraft, and flight hardware. We make many products for drones. Therefore, import substitution should definitely be in focus.”
