OREANDA-NEWS. Relations between Belarus and Russia should be strengthened and intensified, Minsk is ready for this, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on November 26.

“As for the Belarusian–Russian relations, then, perhaps, we should not talk about some kind of reload, but about the strengthening, intensification of our relations. The thesis is absolutely self-evident – and not just a thesis, but practice too. I want you to understand and know that we were ready for this,” Lukashenko said in Minsk at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

As the head of the Belarusian state noted, there is a lot of talk about how the relations between Minsk and Moscow will develop, and what these relations will be like. “Without any hesitation, I just want to tell you… that both Russia and Belarus [After the collapse of the USSR. – Ed.] live (not by the will of Belarus) in their own houses… And we would like to have more than just good-neighbour relations… we would like to have very close fraternal relations with the Russian Federation,” Lukashenko stressed.