OREANDA-NEWS. September 2, 2009. Belarus is interested in the projects that offer alternative ways of energy supply. Our country is considering Ukraine’s invitation to take part in the project to construct Odessa-Brody oil pipeline, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko told reporters in Turov on 2 September.

“I would like to point out that Odessa-Brody is not a new project for us. Diversification of energy supplies is a common and usual practice for any country,” the President said.

“We cannot depend only on one energy supplier (Russia, for example). All the more so, as we have already had problems in this connection,” the head of state said.

“This is why we started to look for alternative ways. I do not know whether it will be successful or not. If the alternative ways prove to be economically efficient, we will carry on. Everything will be done in a sensible way. Odessa-Brody, supplies from Venezuela, supplies to the Baltic states, supplies from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea – we are considering various ways,” the President said.

“At present we are interested in getting carbohydrates from the Russian Federation. If such supplies are no longer profitable, we should think of alternative ways,” the Belarusian leader said. He underlined that there is no need for urgency and these projects are not new.

As for Lithuania’s proposal to start the joint transit of goods and energy sources via Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko said, “the reason why we joined the Eastern Partnership project was not only the access to the free trade zone, but also beneficial transit projects and the reconstruction of these transit routes. If the Baltic states are interested in that (they certainly are, because it means heavy cargo flow and port workload), we will proceed with these projects as they are beneficial for us,” the President added.

The Belarusian leader underlined that these projects do not conflict anyone’s interests: neither Russia’ nor the interests of the western countries.