Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 28 August (BelTA) - Brazil is the most important trading partner of Belarus in Latin America, Belarus’ Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov said as he met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Brazil to Belarus Paulo Antonio Pereira Pinto on 28 August, BelTA has learned.

“Brazil is our largest trading partner in Latin America. In recent times, our mutual trade has been consistently close to $1 billion. We hope that the downward trend that we presently observe will be reversed as soon as possible,” Andrei Kobyakov noted. He said that the current global economic situation is volatile. “We hope that the signs of economic recovery that we have started to observe since recently will be consistent and not random,” Andrei Kobyakov stressed.

The head of the Belarusian government also noted that Belarus-Brazil cooperation has been significantly intensified. “The meeting between Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Brazil President Dilma Rousseff during the BRICS summit played an important role in the bilateral relations. We want once again to invite the head of the Brazilian state to visit Belarus. We hope to welcome Dilma Rousseff in the near future,” Andrei Kobyakov stressed. He also believes that the bilateral cooperation should be aimed at the implementation of the agreements concluded during the meeting of the two presidents.

Andrei Kobyakov congratulated Paulo Antonio Pereira Pinto on his appointment to the position of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Brazil to Belarus. “You have been living in Belarus for half a year already. We hope that you have managed to get acquainted with our country and people and get accustomed to our way of thinking. We hope you like it here,” the Prime Minister said.