Minister: Belarus, Russia stepped up integration in response to sanctions

"In the face of the sanctions, on which our opponents had high hopes, Belarus and Russia mobilized and rallied even closer. Supporting each other, we used the sanctions for deeper integration of our economies," Aleksandr Chervyakov said.

"In January-October, the bilateral trade amounted to $36.5 billion," he said. “Russia's share in Belarus' total trade rose to 60%. Belarusian exports in the total volume of Russia's imports increased from 5% to 8%. This year, Belarus' posted record high export in trade with Russia - $18 billion."

The minister drew attention to the record reduction of the deficit in Belarus' trade with Russia. "The deficit is the lowest in the history of our cooperation, $417 million. In previous years, this figure was more than $2 billion," he said.

"The interaction between our countries made it possible to replace falling exports to the unfriendly countries by more than 80% in January-October of this year, redirecting the flows mainly to the Russian Federation," Aleksandr Chervyakov noted. “Reducing imports from the unfriendly countries and Ukraine was compensated by 50% by imports from Russia. We completely replaced the import of fish products, sunflower oil, generators, electric motors, polymers, railway cars, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and so on."

"Such results became possible, among other things, thanks to our joint work to implement 28 Union State programs. This shows that these programs are strategically important and timely," the economy minister said.

Aleksandr Chervyakov made remarks within the framework of the government hour dedicated to the progress to implement Decree No. 6 "On the guidelines to implement the provisions of the Union State Treaty for 2021-2023” by the Supreme State Council of the Union State dated 4 November 2021.