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Cooperation between Belarus, Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast hailed as efficient

MINSK, 5 June (BelTA) – Cooperation between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast is vibrant, productive and efficient, Belarus’ Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said at he met with Kaliningrad Oblast Governor Anton Alikhanov, BelTA has learned.

“Cooperation between Belarus and Kaliningrad Oblast has always been robust, productive and efficient. It has set the pace in terms of dynamics and the level of contacts,” said Roman Golovchenko.

According to him, the Belarus-Russia Council for Long-Term Cooperation between Regions, Ministries and Government Agencies of Belarus and Kaliningrad Oblast was established back in 1999, becoming the first bilateral collegiate structure of this kind. “Judging by the results achieved and by the way various issues are handled and solutions are found, we can assume that the cooperation mechanism is effective. Today this council has held its 18th meeting,” the prime minister said.

“Our cooperation in trade and economy has also always been fruitful and intensive, our trade is diverse and is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. Of course, the illegitimate pressure on our countries has a certain impact on our relations, and on mutual trade, primarily due to issues with logistics. Both of us used to benefit a lot from the transit of goods from Belarus to Kaliningrad and vice versa, but this transit route was disrupted. Therefore, we have to look for and find new schemes to ship our goods. Unfortunately, this also affects the cost. Nevertheless, the figures are quite good,” the Belarusian head of government said.

“Over the four months of this year, our trade was estimated at $166 million. There is every reason to believe that our trade will hit last year’s mark, which was over $400 million, or will be even bigger. I think we are quite capable of reaching $500 million. We have everything in place for this: strong cooperation ties and the assistance from the leadership of the two countries,” Roman Golovchenko emphasized.

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