Lukashenko: together with Russians, scientists, designers, we’ll create samples the world has never seen before
During a conversation with journalists, summing up the results of the negotiations with Vladimir Putin, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that our joint efforts should be concentrated on transforming the economies of Belarus and Russia in the direction of increasing their research intensity, innovation, digitalisation and technological sovereignty
The Head of State drew attention to what he had already said more than once, “Belarus is a very small state relative to Russia. We often say: machine building, industry, agriculture, science, new technologies, and so on.... Some of our colleagues from Russia, especially farther from Russia, looked at the map and thought: where did they get everything from?”
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that this is not only our merit, “Our merit is that we have preserved these productions, which we inherited from the Soviet Union. Belarus, partly like Ukraine, the west of Russia – these were highly advanced territories. These were territories based on the latest technologies at that time and on the advanced science. We have preserved this and were able to develop under incredibly difficult conditions.”
The President noted that we need about 60 percent of what is produced in Belarus. Everything else is export-oriented, “When our Western partners left, we turned out to be in demand for huge Russia. And this is our common, which we created quite recently. This is where we can do something. If we are needed, and now Russia has discovered that we are needed in the Russian market, we go there and replace those who left. A little more time will pass, and we will replace them. Together with the Russians, scientists, designers, we will create samples that the world has never seen. These are not some frivolous and unrealistic ambitions. We have already done a lot.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko pointed out that the economies of Belarus and Russia did not collapse as deeply as the authors of the sanctions assumed. They talked about a 20-25 percent drop in GDP, while Russia has a real decline of 2.9 percent and Belarus has slightly more than 3 percent, “We didn’t collapse and we won’t collapse. All these areas are of strategic importance. Such issues are not resolved in one day. Time is needed.”
