Opinions & Interviews

“I believe that the visit of the Indian head of state is extremely important due to several reasons. To begin with, it happened at a time when both India and Belarus are going through important changes in many areas. Not so long ago the Indian government launched a major program, the largest one in the last few decades, to fully modernize the country and accelerate economic development. Belarusian private sector could find its business area in this regard. There is no doubt that Belarusian-Indian business ties have been established already and are developing in a number of avenues, however, support for interaction at the highest state level during the visit and after it will create more comfortable rules of the game in the bilateral cooperation. I would like to stress that India President Pranab Mukherjee is not just a leader that occupies a high and honorable political position but a person, a figure with a huge weight and respect in the Indian society. Before his presidency he occupied virtually all the key economic positions in the game, he was the minister of foreign affairs, this is why his visit to Belarus has weight and will give practical dividends,” stated the Honorary Consul.

In his opinion, Belarus has already done a number of serious steps to expand its presence in India. “Thanks to regular contacts and the exchange of visits at various levels Belarusian-Indian relations grow stronger across the board from politics and economy to culture and education,” added Sitaram Sharma.

Belarus-India diplomatic relations were established in 1992. There are embassies in both countries. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was in India in 1997 and 2007 on a state visit. The visit of the India president to Belarus in early June was the first one.