MINSK. Aug 11 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has affirmed the need to maintain relations with Western nations.
"Now we mostly live at the expense of the East: Russia, China. Yet we should not forget about the high-tech West either," the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying at a meeting with labor collectives of enterprises operating at the Minsk National Airport.
"They are near us, they are our neighbors, the European Union. We cannot lose relations with them. We are ready, yet with due account of our own interests," Lukashenko said.