Russia should not try to use Belarus to ban the transit of embargoed goods. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the statement at the government conference held on 3 December to discuss the measures taken to remove the prohibition on the import of Belarusian products to the Russian Federation and the transit of embargoed goods, BelTA has learned.
“If Russia doesn't want some goods to reach Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Mongolia, Turkey and other countries in transit via Russia, then it is up to Russia to stop this transit. It is not our job!” stressed the Belarusian leader.
“We are a transit republic. We earn money from transit albeit not a lot. We cannot forbid the transit of commodities to other countries via our territory. It would be a violation of all norms of international law,” said the head of state.
“We understand that by doing so Russia tries to get us to stop this transit. Meanwhile, they are increasing transit via the Baltic border and border checkpoints in other areas,” noted the President.
“I wonder whether Russia wants to deprive Belarus of transit revenues. We cannot allow it!” stressed Alexander Lukashenko. He pointed out that Belarus has proper procedures in place and all the transit cargoes are escorted to the Russian Federation. “We hand them over to Russia and it is up to them to allow transit or not. But once again I would like to underline that we don't want to get involved in violations of all norms of international law,” said the Belarusian leader.
“We have reached an agreement with Russian partners that Belarus will not suffer from the reciprocal economic sanctions against America and Europe. We'd love to get rid of the sanctions that have been applied to us already. We cannot face more sanctions since we have enough problems to deal with as it is,” added the President.
Written by belta.by
