April 19 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he would be ready to meet U.S. President Donald Trump once a "big deal" between the two countries has been prepared.
"We are ready for a deal, but it needs to be prepared in a way that reflects the interests of both the United States and Belarus," Lukashenko said in an interview with Russian TV network RT, excerpts of which were published on Sunday.
Lukashenko is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine, although without sending Belarusian troops to fight there.
In March, Trump's envoy John Coale said that the Belarusian president may soon visit the United States, a trip that would signal a breakthrough for the veteran authoritarian leader after years of being treated as a pariah because of human rights abuses and his backing for Putin in the war.
Lukashenko said in the RT interview that Minsk had adapted to Western sanctions and that any potential deal with Washington should go beyond sanction relief.
"We have far more issues to resolve, and that's the subject of a big deal," he said without specifying these issues. "Once we finalise this at a lower level, we're ready to meet with Donald and sign the agreement."
(Reporting by ReutersEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
