OREANDA-NEWS. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced the possibility of exceeding in the near future the trade and economic turnover with the Sverdlovsk region of the Russian Federation of $ 600 million, which was a record seven years ago. He expressed this opinion on Monday at a meeting with the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Yevgeny Kuyvashev, a Russian media correspondent reports.

"I think that in the near future we will be able to exceed the record level of our trade, which was in 2012 - about $ 600 million. I propose a detailed discussion of specific ways to achieve this goal", Lukashenko said. According to the president, the Belarusian side considers cooperation with the Russian regions as one of the key areas.

For his part, Kuyvashev noted that the Sverdlovsk region also considers Belarus as a strategic partner, and close cooperation has been established between them. At the end of 2018, trade between Belarus and the Sverdlovsk region reached $ 431.3 million, which increased by 17.6% compared to 2017. In January - August 2019, trade amounted to $ 305.9 million, an increase of 9.6% compared to the same period in 2018.