On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Minsk to meet with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko. The next day, Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said that the Russian and Belarusian sides “do not have a single area where there are no solutions or incompatible positions”.
“I don’t get the feeling that presidents haven’t come to an agreement or that governments don’t know how to implement this or that agreement. And this radically separates yesterday’s meeting from the meetings three or five years ago.” “SB. Belarus today»).
In particular, during the negotiations, Russia promised to provide credit support in the restructuring of Belarus’ debt to Russian financial institutions.
“There are economic nuances. In particular, the Russian Federation provides credit support for the restructuring of Belarus’ debt to Russian financial institutions. We also brought up this issue. He found complete understanding among his Russian colleagues,” he said.
As Golovchenko emphasized, under the current conditions “There is an opportunity to support the Belarusian economy.” “We need to calculate the final amount,” he added.
According to the World Bank, Minsk’s debt to Moscow has already reached $8.5 billion.Belarus is Russia’s largest debtor. In October, it was learned that Russia will allocate another $1.5 billion for import substitution programs in Belarus.
gas price
Also Moscow and Minsk accepted the fix Natural gas price for Belarus for the next three years. According to Golovchenko, the price is “comfortable”. Relevant commercial agreements will be signed in the near future.
“I would like to reassure the people of Belarus that everything will be stable and comfortable for the industry. I think we should stay away from prolonging this issue too much. This is a business question. “The commercial price that was established yesterday and agreed upon by the presidents is based on Belarus’ offer,” he said.
Golovchenko explained price fixing as the need for “definitive stability” and a desire to “advance from a certain figure in his macroeconomic calculations”.
“Price is not the cornerstone,” he concluded.
After Lukashenka’s speech declaration, satisfied with the decision on the formation of gas prices. “It is useful to us. Russia is very helpful in this regard,” he said.
Import substitution
The Belarusian prime minister also touched on the issue of import substitution, noting that Belarusians have succeeded in rerouting their export materials from the markets of hostile countries largely “at the expense of the Russian market”.
“Following the 10-month results already, our exports to Russia have exceeded $18 billion. This is more than ever before in a whole year,” Golovchenko said.
According to him, the list of import substitution projects with Russia is clear and “no threshold”, but so far the limit does not exceed 20 projects. “What can we do now. Everything depends on technical and technological capabilities. Therefore, it is important for us to use the allocated 105 billion Russian rubles,” he said.
He explained that most of the projects are primarily aimed at creating products that will be in demand in Russia and Belarus. “When Russian machine-building enterprises faced the problem of sanctions and restrictions on the supply of imported components, we acted like partners and correctly. This has affected many businesses,” he said.