MINSK, February 9. /TASS/. Mutual trade turnover between Belarus and Russia rose by 6% in 2023 to around $53 bln, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko told a forum.

"We have become closer to each other, having surpassed a fairly high result [of 2022] by 6%," he was quoted as saying by the BelTA agency.

"The external events around our countries have pushed us to strengthening bilateral ties to a degree," Golovchenko said, adding that "those external challenges and threats have only put our countries together as we beefed up the integration processes."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that trade turnover between Moscow and Minsk amounted to $42.5 bln in the first ten months of last year.