Lukashenka: Belarus Ready to Do Everything for Vietnam

Belarus is "ready to do everything for Vietnam," Alyaksandr Lukashenka said while meeting with the secretary general of the Vietnamese Communist Party in Hanoi on Monday, BelaPAN said.

Belarus' state-run media outlets quoted him as saying that the two countries shared common "ideological foundations" for the development of ties.

"We do not have differences over foreign policy," he said. "We support multi-polar world and back the equality and the right of countries to decide by their own how they should develop in accordance with the wish of the peoples. Certainly, some do not like such policy. There are attempts to put pressure on us also by means of economic sanctions, but we are taking them calmly. It is not very easy to lead us astray."

Mr. Lukashenka stressed the need for Belarus and Vietnam to increase their trade almost 10-fold in the next two or three years from $63.6 million in 2007, the figure that he described as insufficient.

"The heads of major ministries, companies and enterprises have arrived with me. Many of them have already struck important contracts that concern the further development of cooperation between the two countries. We are prepared to compile a list of goods that we will buy from Vietnam."

The Belarusian leader invited the secretary general, Nong Duc Manh, to visit Minsk, according to the report.

Mr. Manh said that Mr. Lukashenka's visit was a landmark event and expressed hope that it would contribute to the development of cooperation between the two countries.