Russia should never doubt Belarus’ integrity and reliability — Lukashenko

MINSK, August 21. /TASS/. Russia should not doubt Belarus’ honesty, integrity and reliability, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday after a meeting with Gazprom head Alexey Miller.

"We never traded our common security, our common independence, and we will never trade them no matter how hard we are pushed to the right or to the left," Lukashenko said.

Belarus "does not have a position of choice - West or Russia, West or East," he continued. "We never held any negotiations with anyone, never even sat at the negotiations table if we faced a choice between Russia and the West," Lukashenko continued adding that "Russia is our common Fatherland." "We never argued with Russia on a big scale. We had some minor issues, as we are living in the common house after all. However, we never had big problems, and we will never have them," the Belarusian leader stressed.

Minsk also openly states that it wants to normalize relations with the European Union and United States, Lukashenko said. "Just like Russia, just like any other country, but not at the expense of our own interests. We already demonstrated that," the president added.

Lukashenko assured Gazprom head Alexey Miller that Minsk "will always do what is beneficial for Russian companies and for Russia." "We are ready to support any project in Belarus, starting from construction and ending with our main activities," he said.