BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/05/2007

Ties with Iran do not mean alienation from Russia - Lukashenko

BREST. May 25 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has rejected the opinion that Belarus abandoned cooperation with Russia when it chose to expand contacts with Iran.

"If Russia wants Belarus to move away, it will do so. But if Russia wants to continue living together, we will live together. But no one should have a stranglehold on us," Lukashenko told journalists in Brest on Friday.

"How should I react when 'the air supply' of the entire country has been cut off for the second time?" he said.

Russia and the European Union account for 45% of Belarus' foreign trade each, Lukashenko said. "The extent of dependence is great in both cases. It should not be so," the president said.

"We need new markets," Lukashenko said. Iran imports $60 billion worth of goods annually, he said. "Why not Belarusian goods? They are ready to purchase them," he added.

"Why do we have to reject an invitation to extract oil? What kind of alienation from Russia do you see there?" the head of state said.

"No one will be able to control the country [Belarus] by holding the valve - I mean gas or oil valves -in the future. It is as simple as that," he said.

Source:

http://www.interfax.com/3/275749/news.aspx