MINSK, November 13. /TASS/. Belarus will maintain balanced relations with all states, considering Russia its main ally, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper published on Wednesday on the website of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.
"We would like to maintain balanced relations with everyone," he stated. "We see Russia as our main ally, as our natural neighbor," Makei added. According to him, Belarus and Russia have established "very good" relations. "We would like to reinforce them in the future. However, this does not mean that we should look only to Russia," the minister noted. "Last time, during a major global financial crisis, we saw for ourselves that dependence on one state is harmful to our economy."
The Belarusian top diplomat noted that Belarus wishes to diversify its relations with other countries, seeing the European Union as its second major economic partner. "We would like to have good relations with the EU and other states in the world," the minister went on. According to him, Belarus is located "on the fracture line between two major geopolitical players." "And the confrontation they are currently in affects us and our neighbors. First and foremost, this concerns sanctions and countersanctions between Russia and Western states, which affects us a lot as an open, export-oriented state," Makei noted.