OREANDA-NEWS.  February 12, 2008. Belarus is interested in a dialogue with countries of the West, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said in his speech before students of the Belarusian State University on February 12.

“Our approaches are productive to the utmost extent: we need a dialogue, not a dictate. We are very interested in cooperation with the West countries, especially the European Union,” said the head of state.

He added, the European Union accounts for some 40% of Belarus’ export. The European Union market is the second most important market for Belarus after Russia. Economic partnership with the European Union contributes to bringing investments, modern technologies, upgrading production facilities in Belarus. On the other hands, trade with Belarus and participation in ensuring the Belarusian transit are some of the most important elements of the economic and hence social stability of Poland and the Baltic states, remarked Alexander Lukashenko.

The President underscored, with the accession of these countries to the European Union the importance of a comprehensive dialogue with the European Union has increased. “Today even regulating slightest issues of the foreign policy and economy our neighbours have to consult centre bodies of the European Union more and more. I would like to note that we repeatedly told the Western partners about possible problems our countries may face after the extension of the Schengen zone. Moreover, unilaterally we maximally facilitated the issuance of Belarusian visas for EU citizens. We even abandoned mutuality principles and set the cost of visas for citizens of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia at ?25 instead of ?60. We initiated several proposals to introduce special privileged procedures for crossing the border for borderline area population and certain categories of citizens. We are doing our best to prevent the European Union border from becoming a new iron curtain only well-to-do people will be able to cross,” said Alexander Lukashenko.

According to the President, the common border envisages cooperation in other issues as well. Those are fight against transboundary crimes, joint actions meant to ensure smooth operation of the transport infrastructure, stable development of bordering regions, which are interlinked by economic, ethnical, cultural ties.