Belarus will not prohibit transit of food through its territory

On Wednesday, head of Belarus held a Meeting on the measures to resume supplies of Belarusian foodstuffs to Russia. There, Alyaksandr Lukashenka made a number of harsh statements. He refuted the claim of the Russian side about the quality of the Belarusian products and stressed that the exported goods are "the best we have". And Russia is "half a century" behind Belarus "in terms of product safety," said Lukashenka.

At the meeting, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that Belarus will not prohibit the transit of food through its territory. "If Russia does not want any goods to go through us to China, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Kazakhstan and other countries, let it deal with the prohibition of transit, but not us ... We are a transit republic, we have money, although small, on that, we cannot stop transit of goods to other countries through our territory," RIA Novosti quoted Lukashenka.

The head of state said that the ban on the transit of goods through the territory of Belarus "is a violation of all norms of the international law".

Earlier Rosselkhoznadzor reported its intention to prohibit the transit through Russia to third countries which was hit by the August embargo on western food from Belarus. The agency stated that the transit of such products is only possible through Russian checkpoints. In addition, the Russian side initiated the termination of transit of products banned in Russia via Belarus along the route, which passes through Russia, Kazakhstan and third countries. The Russian side explained its actions by detection of illegal supply of products from the territory of Belarus.

In the summer of 2014, in response to Western sanctions, Russia for a year banned imports of a number of food products from the countries that had imposed sanctions (US, EU Member States, Canada, Australia and Norway). The list includes beef, pork, poultry, seafood, vegetables, fruits, cheeses and dairy products.

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