Putin and Belarus leader see 'great future' ahead

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leader of isolated Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, praised their close ties Thursday on Putin's first trip abroad since he started his new Kremlin term. His trip to Belarus -- an ex-Soviet state blackballed by the West for its crackdown on the opposition -- comes after Putin rejected US President Barack Obama's personal invitation to a White House summit in May. Lukashenko, dubbed by Washington "Europe's last dictator," personally travelled to the airport to meet Putin and shared a vehicle with him to his residence, set in a pine forest outside the capital Minsk. The two men praised their close ties when they spoke to reporters after evening talks at Lukashenko's sprawling residence. "The very fact of my first foreign visit to brotherly Belarus certainly reflects the special nature of our relations," Putin said. The Belorussian leader for his part told Putin his country was Moscow's closest and most loyal ally." "Vladimir Vladimirovich, I am very much grateful for this visit. It's a signal that a great future awaits us," he said in front of reporters. Putin said Belarus had in recent times received economic aid of around $5 billion. Last year Belarus secured a $3-billion loan from a grouping of ex-Soviet countries led by Moscow. The Russian leader said after the talks that an agreement was reached for Belarus to receive a third installment of that loan. He added that the talks would now start on the fourth installment. The two men also said they had discussed plans to build a nuclear power plant in Belarus and a project to create a joint automotive holding. Russia has earlier offered Belarus a $10 billion loan over 15 years for the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant since the 1986 Chernobyl accident in ex-Soviet Ukraine. Lukashenko also said Minsk and Moscow had no differences when it came to building a Eurasian economic union, a plan agreed last year to form a bloc together with Central Asian state Kazakhstan by 2015. Putin said in 2011 that it would be desirable for Russia and Belarus -- which is battling a severe economic crisis -- to merge into one country. The two leaders in a joint statement also said their countries would coordinate efforts in preventing third parties from interfering in their internal affairs and introducing sanctions against them. Belarus has been ostracised by the West over Lukashenko's brutal crackdown on the opposition since a disputed December 2010 re-election. Relations between Moscow and Minsk have at times also been prickly, as the mercurial Belarus strongman has in recent years launched populist attacks against Russia over energy price hikes. Putin in his comments refrained from any rhetoric that may antagonise the West. From Minsk, he will travel to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by an ice-breaking meeting with new French President Francois Hollande on Friday. The Syria crisis is set to loom large over the talks in Berlin and Paris as the West seeks to persuade Russia to take a harder line against President Bashar al-Assad amid escalating violence. Putin -- in his third Kremlin term, but facing an opposition protest movement at home -- in May avoided the chance to make the United States his first foreign destination with a no-show at a G8 summit at the US presidential Camp David retreat.