Opinions & Interviews

NEW DELHI, 12 September (BelTA) – India plans to strengthen and diversify economic cooperation with Belarus, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted following the official negotiations with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, BelTA has learned.

“We have touched upon a wide range of matters and took a look into the future in a warm atmosphere. We have exchanged opinions on matters on bilateral agenda and on events in the region and in the world. We have considered the architecture of our partnership, discussed new ideas and initiatives to keep expanding it. We have taken a decision to develop interaction in every field of our cooperation,” the prime minister remarked.

“We will work hard to promote and diversify our economic relations. We will focus on the principle of complementarity when building them,” Narendra Modi underlined.

According to him, Belarusian and Indian companies should foster their relations and go beyond the scope of regular export-import operations towards closer cooperation. “There are tremendous opportunities for business and investment in pharmaceutics, oil and gas industry, and heavy industry,” the Indian leader said.

He also stressed that the two countries set up several joint pharmaceutical companies in 2016 and keep working in this direction. There are also opportunities to develop partnership in the production of tires, agricultural and mining equipment, and heavy construction equipment.

“There has been certain progress in using India’s $100 million credit line opened for the joint projects in Belarus in 2015,” Narendra Modi added.

Another thing uniting India and Belarus is cooperation with international organizations, the EAEU, in particular, and also interaction within the framework of the International North–South Transport Corridor project.

Narendra Modi drew special attention to cooperation in science, innovations, and cutting-edge technologies where Belarus has a solid background in a number of fields. India is contemplating setting up an exhibition center which would display Belarusian solutions, too.

Another dimension of Belarus-India cooperation is their partnership in skill development and vocational education. Belarus is an active participant of India’s program of technical and economic cooperation.