Belarus does not plan to create a single port in Russia

Belarus does not plan to create a single port in Russia, but will use the network of seaports in the country. About this in an interview with RIA Novosti declared Ambassador of Belarus to Russia Dmitry Krutoy.

“Actually, I would not talk about a single base port for Belarus now. Today we actively use the infrastructure of 19 Russian ports: from St. Petersburg to the Caspian Sea. And to be honest, I like this kind of diversification,” Krutoy said.

He noted that Belarus needs terminals for the export of “the same potash or oil products”, but “here too there are several options”, in particular, the use of ports from St. Petersburg to Murmansk.

“The fact that today we do not put our eggs in one basket and do not get hung up on one basic <...> port, this is probably the right strategy, and we will support it,” the ambassador said. In addition, over the past 1.5 years, ports in Russia have been able to replace for Belarus’ exports previously used ports in the Baltic countries, which became closed to the republic as a result of Western sanctions.

In February, the head of the Second Department of the CIS countries of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexei Polishchuk, in an interview with the agency toldthat the St. Petersburg seaport “Bronka” can be transferred to Belarus. Then he said that the capacity of the transshipment complex is 3.2 million tons per year, and the design capacity reaches 20.7 million tons per year. The steps taken by the ministry made it possible to “many times” increase the volume of transit of Belarusian export cargo through Russia, Polishchuk noted.

Last summer, Prime Minister of the Republic Roman Golovchenko informed about plans to create a port in the north-west of Russia. Golovchenko said that we are talking about all types of cargo: fertilizers, timber and rolling cargo, as well as container transportation. The prime minister did not specify in which port, how much the project would cost and how long it would take to be implemented. At the same time, he predicted the start of the project until the end of 2022.