Belarus, China agree to potash provisions and $1bn in bank loans

A meeting between Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday yielded agreements extending loans worth US$1 billion to banks in Belarus and locked in 4 million tons of shipments of the crop nutrient potash to China over the course of five years worth about US$1.3 billion, Reuters reported, citing a statement from the Belarussian Postash Company. The loans went to Belarus’s state-controlled Development Bank and state-owned Belarusbank. The former Soviet republic’s economy has been battered by a volatile Russian ruble and plunging oil prices.