Trade turnover between Russia and Belarus exceeded 1 trillion rubles

According to the results of the first four months of this year, the trade turnover between Russia and Belarus increased by 11%, exceeding 1 trillion rubles, declared Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Roman Golovchenko.

Mishustin noted that in 2022 the volume of trade between the two countries grew by 12%, exceeding 3 trillion rubles.

“In January-April, the volume of trade increased by another 11% and amounted to more than a trillion Russian rubles, or almost 40 billion Belarusian rubles,” he said.

As part of an intergovernmental agreement on industrial cooperation, 16 joint projects worth 80 billion rubles were approved. in the fields of mechanical engineering, machine tool building and microelectronics, Mishustin added.

The Russian prime minister also spoke about the continuation of the joint work of Moscow and Minsk on the implementation of 28 union programs, 10 of them have already been implemented today.

Last December, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko declaredthat, as a result of joint efforts, Russia and Belarus were able to overcome the possible negative consequences of Western sanctions. At the same time, according to Lukashenka, not everything has worked out yet. “On a number of sensitive issues, governments have exhausted negotiating opportunities,” he said.

At the beginning of this year Golovchenko saidthat in 2022 Belarus for the first time ensured a positive balance of foreign trade with Russia.

Earlier, Belarus offered Russia joint investment projects to replace imports under Western sanctions. As part of the agreements with the Russian President, Moscow will allocate $1.5 billion for Minsk’s participation in import substitution programs, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said. In particular, the funds will be used to implement projects in the field of mechanical engineering, said Belarusian Industry Minister Petr Parkhomchik.