Lukashenka: MFA says Americans nailed us down

• 28.03.2008, 11:37

Alyaksandr Lukashenka demanded to diversify Belarusian export, by that compensating for U.S. sanctions against Belneftekhim concern and its enterprises.

“Over the last time our politically conscious (opposition – IF) have said that we will have economical problems, that Americans have nailed us down. The Ministry of Internal Affairs says the same. But if we worked in other directions, we wouldn’t notice the U.S. sanctions,” Lukashenka said at the meeting on cooperation with Persian Gulf countries.

“Is it a problem to sell potash to other countries? This is the main point of our export to the United States,” A. Lukashenka said. According to him, “it turned out there are no problems.” “We can easily use the growing demand of potash in the world,” the president noted. He also added: “We can sell easily the potash fertilizers, and these U.S. sanctions will mean nothing for us. They (the U.S. – IF) have understood and realized it,” A. Lukashenka declared.

“We should have diversified our export long ago, we can’t focus only on Russia, the EU and the United States,” the president said. A. Lukashenka also emphasized “There are other states, among them the Persian Gulf countries, which need our goods.”