OREANDA-NEWS. September 12, 2011. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko wants to continue building up relations with the West. The President made this statement as he met with reporters on 9 September. “We met the West halfway before and we will keep doing it. I do not want bad relations with the West. Why would we want this?” The head of state said. Alexander Lukashenko reminded reporters that Belarus’ trade with the EU is bigger than that with Russia. “Powerful Russia cannot do without Western Europe. Why would we get isolated? It is not our policy, because we will not pull through. This is the reason why I am building up these relations and will continue doing it,” the President underlined. In his words, “both Russia and the People's Republic of China and others know it”. “But this will not be detrimental to our relations with Russia, China and other states.

We have our interests there,” the head of state said. “I want our people to travel there freely and their people to come to Belarus,” the President said. “Everyone who visited Belarus was surprised to see that it is a civilized country.

What are we reading? It is absolutely not true. It means they lie all the time over there,” the head of state concluded. “I do not want it. We live in a civilized country with smart, intelligent and civilized people and I want this to be acknowledged all over the world,” Alexander Lukashenko said.