There Begins De-escalation in Relations between Belarus and the United States, Lukashenko

Belarus has a neat dialogue with current White House administration. It was stated by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, speaking about relations between the U.S. and Belarus. "Recently, there has started a process of de-escalation of bilateral relations, their atmosphere is gradually returning to normal", the President said.

At the same time Alexander Lukashenko added that «the United States has made some small steps towards the improvement of bilateral relations», BelTA informs.

According to Belarusian leader, over last year there liven up high and high-level contacts with representatives of American administration, legislative power, business community. «In June of last year, I met with impressive delegation of the U.S. Congress. In March 2010, I received the heads of several major U.S. companies. The visit marked an informal beginning of activity of the Council of business cooperation Belarus — USA. We have stated about our readiness to begin fruitful collaboration with the USA not only in economic, but also in other spheres», Alexander Lukashenko noted.

We are realists and do not expect significant improvement of bilateral relations in near future», the head of state said. «This process is not a single one, it will be continuous but we are ready to work with new U.S. administration in this direction».

Belarusian leader added that despite difficult bilateral political relations, Belarus and the U.S. did not stop their interaction in many areas of mutual interest, including combating human trafficking, international terrorism and cybercrimes. «So, with the wish of the White House we have a real chance to build normal relations based on mutual respect, eliminating diktat and double standards», Alexander Lukashenko stressed.

Belarus and Syria are reaching the level of industrial cooperation, Lukashenko

Furthermore, Alexander Lukashenko also told about cooperation between Belarus and Syria. A visit of the head of Syrian state to Belarus will last from July 26 to 27. By the visit of Syrian leader there will be prepared a number of bilateral projects for implementation in various fields, including mechanical engineering, agriculture, education and tourism.

According to Alexander Lukashenko, recently, there has been achieved a particular progress in cooperation between the two countries in economic sphere. Syria has become one of the major markets to sell Belarusian trucks far abroad. Since 2001, about five thousand MAZ trucks have been sold in Syrian market.

Belarus started to supply metal, appliances and equipment, tires, synthetic fibers, dry milk and other products to Syria. In its turn, Belarus became to import phosphates and aluminum tape along with traditional fruit and vegetable products and textiles from Syria.

«Saying in other words, we are already reaching the level of industrial cooperation, what makes our two countries even more close. Implementation of these projects goes beyond mere commercial transactions, it requires a search of compromises and innovative solutions», Belarusian leader underlined.

According to Alexander Lukashenko, kind of barriers for the development of bilateral cooperation are the need of trade routes optimization, which will allow to reduce the cost of goods delivery, as well as trade legislation improvement in order to ensure great volume of reciprocal trade preferences and some aspects of customs regulations. «But all this is surmountable. The main thing is that we have an aspiration to do that», the president said.
 
In his turn, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Syria to Belarus, Farouk Taha, said that Syria and Belarus have much in common, particularly in their positions on the international agenda. «Both countries advocate the improvement of international environment, maintenance of peace and security worldwide, as well as the UN reforming so that the organization meets the challenges of the modern world and the peoples’ expectations», Syrian diplomat said.