BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/03/2010

China Pledges More Than $4 Billion Aid Package To Belarus

(RTTNews) -

Belarus, isolated by most developed nations, is to receive low interest loans and commercial contracts worth more than $4 billion from China.

The financial support was pledged by Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping during talks with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko Wednesday.

Beijing's aid package includes $1 billion credit on easy terms, commercial contracts worth $3.4 billion, and a $9 million cash grant, which is not re-payable.

At a press conference in capital Minsk, Lukashenko expressed gratitude for China's economic support.

Lukashenko says China-Belarus trade turnover has multiplied many-fold in the last two years, from $500 million to $2.5 billion.

"We are ready to cooperate on anything from agriculture to atomic power stations," he told reporters.

Irked by the authoritarian leader's poor human rights record, the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on the former Soviet Republic.

EU sanctions against Belarus date back to 1999. In 2008, a travel ban on Lukashenko and several associates was suspended as an incentive for reform in the country.

Last year, thousands of anti-government activists held nationwide demonstrations in protest against the authoritarian rule of Lukashenko, dubbed by the United States as "Europe's last dictator."

Lukashenko is seeking increased economic ties with anti-American countries, most recently Venezuela and Iran.

Source:

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/MarketSensitiveNews.aspx?Id=1251349&SM=1


Partners:
Face.by Social Network
Face.by