Belarus says 2025 ‘much more difficult’ as Western sanctions impact trade
Belarus is facing a tougher economic environment in 2025 due to Western sanctions, despite maintaining trade relationships with more than 210 countries and territories, Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov told a ministry board meeting on 11 March.
‘Given the full sanctions policy of the EU countries, this year will be much more difficult. And we already see this based on the results of January,’ Ryzhenkov said, according to Belarus’s state news agency BelTA.
The foreign minister identified Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates as Belarus’s top three trading partners, followed by Poland and Germany, with ‘significant’ trade volumes also maintained with Kazakhstan, Turkey, Italy, Brazil and Uzbekistan.
‘Taking into account the growing economic and political potential of the distant arc countries, cooperation with the countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America has been strengthened,’ Ryzhenkov noted in the translated dispatch, adding that Belarus had ‘not allowed a collapse in trade with the countries of the European Union’ and had ‘even worked in the plus with a number of European countries.’
Ryzhenkov called for increased efficiency across all government departments to address the challenges posed by sanctions, saying the ministry must focus on ‘the implementation of the agreements reached, in strengthening coordination between departments, in the preparation of documentation and in the overall organization of work.’
‘This concerns both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies, as well as specialists from related industries with whom the Ministry of Foreign Affairs closely cooperates,’ he added.
