Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 4 September (BelTA) – Members of Parliament should lead the development of economic relations between Belarus and Slovakia, Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Viktor Guminsky said as he met with Mr Robert Madei, Chairman of the Constitutional Commission of the National Council of Slovakia and head of the group of friendship with the Belarusian parliament, BelTA has learned.

"MPs should be in the lead and help develop the relations between Belarus and Slovakia, primarily in the economic area. This will be facilitated by mutual visits of our parliamentary delegation. Meanwhile, the bilateral trade clearly does not match the existing potential,” Viktor Guminsky said.

According to him, Belarus and Slovakia are members of different integration association but that should not hamper the rapprochement of the two states. For example, Belarus can advance more actively to the EU market via Slovakia and Slovakia the market of the Customs Union and Eurasian Economic Union via Belarus. The Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives drew attention to the possibility of developing the idea of integration of integrations.

In general, according to Viktor Guminsky, Belarus and Slovakia have never had contradictions, and peoples have always been close.

For his part, Robert Madei expressed the hope for the further strengthening of relations between Belarus and Slovakia and noted the need to continue such parliamentary meetings.

The National Assembly of Belarus and the National Council of Slovakia have established parliamentary friendship groups. The two countries maintain inter-parliamentary cooperation in international organizations, in particular in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Belarusian and Slovak delegations always hold bilateral meetings during the annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assemblies.