Belarus is ready to bring relations with the United States back
to normal, the Belarussian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
"Belarus is ready to establish normal, pragmatic and mutually
advantageous relations with the United States as much as our US
counterparts want," the head of the ministry's information
department, Andrei Popov, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency
as saying.
"There are enough proposals and areas for cooperation -- the war
on terrorism, the fight against drugs and human trafficking and
other challenges that are high on the international agenda for
sustaining peace and stability," he said.
Belarus has repeatedly announced its readiness to change the
character and the content of the dialogue with the US "Now the ball
is on its half of the field," Popov said.
"We hope that our US counterparts will assess domestic political
processes in Belarus with respect to the Belarussian people's
opinion," he said.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said last month his
country stands ready to develop relations with the United States as
equal partners.
The United States is the biggest source of foreign investment in
Belarus. Trade with the United States accounts for about 3 percent
of Belarus' foreign trade.
(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2006)
