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Belarus views SCO as important platform for dialogue with key partners

MINSK, 1 June (BelTA) – Belarus views the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as an important platform for dialogue with traditional friends and key partners, Deputy Head of the Asia, Australia and Oceania Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Vadim Senyuta said at the roundtable to discuss opportunities of cooperation between Belarus and the SCO in the format of public diplomacy in the House of Friendship on 31 May, BelTA has learned.

He emphasized: “Belarus maintains strategic relations with Russia and China. Together with Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, it is part of the Eurasian Economic Union and participates in China’s Road and Belt initiative. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are important trade and economic partners of Belarus in the CIS. Belarus has been steadily developing relations with India and Pakistan.

“Thanks to obtaining the status of a dialogue partner in 2010 and upgrading it to an observer status in 2015, Belarus is involved in the SCO vast agenda, takes an active part in the political and diplomatic, trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian dimensions of the organization, and puts forward initiatives,” said Vadim Senyuta.

At the summit in Dushanbe in 2021, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko put forward initiatives to align the development strategies of the organization member states, to develop cooperation in healthcare, transport, renewable energy, to use national currencies in trade and finance, to fight against cyber threats. The SCO Heads of State Council also implemented the initiative of the Belarusian head of state to hold a joint SCO-CSTO meeting on Afghanistan.

Last year alone, Belarus took part in the SCO economic forum, the international trade and investment exhibition, and also forums of public diplomacy, women's education and poverty reduction, tourism forum, forums of traditional medicine, and the digital economy of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

“Belarus was regularly represented at various international humanitarian events, such as a media forum, a film festival, onsite meetings of the SCO Ambassadors Club, the SCO Kunming Marathon,” the representative of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

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