Belarus’ should respond to US sanctions by diversifying exports, President says

The US sanctions against Belarus should be compensated for by the diversification of Belarusian exports, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting focusing on foreign policy issues. Recently, more often than before, the Belarusian opposition has been warning of economic problems that Belarus is going to have, that the USA has put severe pressure on us; the Foreign Ministry has been reporting this, too” the head of state said. “If we had been working in other areas, we would not have noticed these US sanctions,” he added. “Is it really a problem to sell potassium into other countries, and potassium is the main export item to the USA?” asked the President. “It has turned out that there are no problems with that. We can easily place our orders. The demand for potassium has been growing worldwide, triggering prices for potash fertilizers. It has turned out that we can easily sell this product, and these American sanctions are worthless, they have now understood and recognized it themselves.” Alexander Lukashenko stressed that Belarus should have diversified its exports long ago. “We should not depend just on Russia, the EU and the USA,” he added.