Opinions & Interviews
Belarus, China agree to discuss new promising projects
BEIJING, 26 April (BelTA) – Belarus and China intend to discuss new promising projects that will help take both the bilateral cooperation and also the interaction as part of the Belt and Road initiative onto a new level, Belarus Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei told the media, BelTA has learned.
“Our bilateral trade, economic, and political relations have been steadily developing. We, as it was noted during the meeting between our president with his Chinese counterpart, have absolutely no problems. We support each other in international organizations. We have a highly-developed legal framework. During the current visit we have signed more than 20 cooperation agreements and business contracts. At the meeting with the Chinese president and China Vice President Wang Qishan we talked about the prospects of our relations. We have agreed that there is a need to hold a meeting of the joint committee on cooperation shortly to discuss concrete projects that will be forward-looking and help us raise the cooperation to a new level,” the minister said.
According to Vladimir Makei, Aleksandr Lukashenko and Xi Jinping stressed the need to accelerate the shift to investment cooperation in bilateral relations. “I am confident that the current visit will open up new large-scale prospects for us, including as part of the Belt and Road initiative,” the minister said.
He also highlighted the development of the Great Stone Industrial Park which was touted as the Belt and Road “pearl”. In his words, the park is growing international. Companies from a big number of countries have already registered with it. Another positive example of cooperation is a considerable increase in container shipping through Belarus in recent years. The country secures reliable transit and also makes use of the opportunity to expand supplies within the Belarusian-Chinese trade.
“As for the Belt and Road initiative, we are its active supporters since the initiative yields concrete benefits for Belarus, both as part of mutual projects and also in terms of Belarus’ participation in the Belt and Road projects. This is very beneficial for us,” the minister said.
In Beijing, the Belarusian president has already held a number of bilateral meetings, including on the sidelines of the forum. Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Serbia President Aleksandar Vucic. “Agreements were reached to intensify contacts. The Uzbekistan president is expected to visit Belarus this summer. Aleksandr Lukashenko is set to pay a visit to Serbia in Q4 2019. We have agreed to hold meetings of joint intergovernmental commissions and business forums. We understand the need to accelerate the implementation of the agreements and projects that are still in the pipeline or just got underway,” Vladimir Makei said.
“Our president stressed that we should proceed from the results of the contacts at the supreme level. We will be guided by this instruction,” the minister said.
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