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Belarus expected to ask Russia for $2-billion loan on Friday

The Belarusian delegation to the forthcoming meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Belarusian-Russian Union State will ask Russia for a $2-billion loan for the modernization of the Belarusian economy, reported the Belarusian private newspaper Belorusy i Rynok.

The delegation to the meeting that will be held in St. Petersburg on March 15 has already drafted a loan agreement, the report said.

Under the agreement, the loan would have to be repaid before 2027 in 40 equal installments. The first payment would be made in 2018.

In its loan application, the Belarusian delegation reminds the Russian government that the two countries had earlier agreed to carry out "five joint integration projects," the report said.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka revealed on December 21, 2012, that Belarus had asked Russia for $2 billion in "cheap loans" and the request had not been turned down.

"If we are blood brothers, we should be helped," Mr. Lukashenka said while meeting with students at Belarusian State University of Informatics and Electronic Engineering in Minsk. "We need a couple of billions of dollars in cheap loans to modernize our companies. I held tough talks in the Russian government and with the president on December 18 and 19, there were many issues."

Moscow has not rejected the request and has asked Minsk to submit a list of the companies that it wants to modernize with the loans, according to Mr. Lukashenka. He added that if the companies received the loans, Russia might obtain a stake in them in exchange.

Mr. Lukashenka noted that Belarus also needed money to modernize companies that are of no interest to Russia. "They did not answer in the negative, on the contrary, they said, 'We will consider the matter and provide help in this area'," he said. //BelaPAN