Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 11 April (BelTA) – Chairman of the House of Representatives of Belarus’ National Assembly Vladimir Andreichenko hopes that Bulgarian MPs will observe the parliamentary elections in Belarus as part of the OSCE PA mission. He made a relevant statement as he met with Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Mitov on 11 April, BelTA has learned.

“The elections to the House of Representatives will take place in autumn 2016. We hope the OSCE PA observation mission will comprise Bulgarian MPs,” Vladimir Andreichenko said.

He noted that Belarusian people regard Bulgarians as a friendly nation and keep track of the transformations the country is experiencing. “Bulgaria’s influence in the region and on the international arena has been growing recently,” he said. Vladimir Andreichenko pointed out that Belarus and Bulgaria boosted their cooperation in 2014-2015, which resulted in a number of official visits. However, the Chairman of the House of Representatives stressed that the countries should step up interaction at international platforms and maintain the high level of political contacts. Besides, he noted that an invitation was sent to President of the Bulgarian National Assembly Tsetska Tsacheva in 2010 to visit Belarus. The visit has not taken place yet. Vladimir Andreichenko said that the invitation is still in force.

Interregional cooperation was named a promising cooperation field. Vladimir Andreichenko stressed that Belarus and Bulgaria have around 40 cooperation agreements signed at the level of cities and regions.

The Chairman of the Belarusian House of Representatives also believes that special attention should be paid to trade and economic cooperation, even though upward trends have been observed in recent years. For example, in 2015 the trade totaled $126.8 million, up by 18.4% from 2014. Vladimir Andreichenko believes that it is necessary to strengthen cooperation in mechanical engineering and woodworking. He invited the Bulgarian side to attend the expo Belagro to be held in Minsk in early June 2016.

Tourism was identified as another promising cooperation area. The Bulgarian side said that some 90,000 Belarusians visited Bulgaria in 2015, while the Belarusian Embassy in Sofia issued more than 2,000 visas of different types to Bulgarian citizens. Vladimir Andreichenko said that Belarus is not very popular with Bulgarian travelers. However, the number of Bulgarian tourists can be considerably increased by promoting hunting tourism, eco- and agrotourism.

For his part, Daniel Mitov said that he had a detailed and comprehensive discussion with Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei over a range of issues. “Bulgaria is chairing the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. It is our priority to develop a more profound and dynamic dialogue with Belarus,” the head of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized.