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Lukashenka to visit China

Alyaksandr Lukashenka is expected to stay in the People’s Republic of China between October 9 and 11, BelaPAN said.

On Friday, the Belarusian leader gave an interview to China’s Central Television, the Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party’s newspaper Renming Ribao (People's Daily), according to the presidential press office.

“I’m looking forward to China investing large amounts in our economy and I think we’ll benefit from this,” Mr. Lukashenka said. He noted that he expected his forthcoming talks with President Hu Jintao to contribute to the “strengthening of positive trends in the development of Belarusian-Chinese cooperation.”

Speaking about Belarus’ relations with Russia, Mr. Lukashenka acknowledged that the formation of the Union State “has somewhat decelerated because of known reasons.” “But it seems to me that this is surmountable,” he said. “One should not demonize and hyperbolize this. We’ll bring our relations with Russia back to normal. We’ll find ways for this. Russia cannot do without Belarus and Belarus cannot do without Russia.”

“It will be hard for us to be without Russia, but it will be very hard and difficult for Russia to be without Belarus,” Mr. Lukashenka said. “We should have normal relations. That’s why all these differences and misunderstandings will become things of the past.”

In his message of greetings sent to President Hu Jintao on October 1 on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Lukashenka expressed hope that the prospects of existing joint projects in the financial, investment, scientific, military-technical and other spheres would be discussed in detail during his visit to Beijing.

Mr. Lukashenka last visited China in August 2008. He attended the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, held talks with the Chinese president and met with representatives of Chinese business circles.