Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko’s visit to Baku expected to be one of most fruitful ones in recent years

MINSK, 16 April (BelTA) – The visit of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko to Azerbaijan will become one of the most impactful ones in recent years, Andrei Savinykh, Chairman of the Standing Committee on International Affairs of the House of Representatives, told the SB. Belarus Segodnya newspaper, BelTA informs.

“In my opinion, the visit of the Belarus president to Baku will become one of the most productive visits at the highest level in recent years. I am sure that in the near future we will see that bilateral cooperation will gain momentum in all areas, including in the manufacturing industry, science and education. The two countries will also launch joint projects in electric transport. First, Azerbaijan invites  Belarus to participate in the post-conflict reconstruction of Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover. Azerbaijan will adopt Belarus’ unique experience of establishing agro-industrial complexes. This project has proved to be a success in our country and abroad. The second thing is Belarus’ efforts to promote closer cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Eurasian Economic Union. Undoubtedly, in the coming months, we will see a greater engagement of Azerbaijan in the EAEU and the Customs Union,” he said.

Andrei Savinykh commented on the proposal of President Ilham Aliyev that Belarus be a peace broker between Azerbaijan and Armenia. “This is an important new point. Belarus, a country with a peaceful foreign policy that builds its relations with partners on the principles of good-neighborliness and mutual understanding, can indeed make a significant contribution to mending ties between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which will ultimately lay the foundation for a lasting peace in Transcaucasia,” the MP said.

Aleksei Avdonin, an analyst with the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research, doubles down on that. “The Belarusian leader clearly understands his historical role, which is, first of all, to restore and maintain peace and harmony in the post-Soviet space. Therefore, top on the agenda of the talks were issues related to the settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as economic cooperation, improving the living standards of peoples,” the expert said.

According to him, this visit of Aleksandr Lukashenko dramatically changed the information agenda of recent months and even the whole year. “In fact, due to the pandemic heads of state rarely visited each other, there were only brief visits by representatives of various government agencies. This visit opened an important stage in active peacekeeping activities and in economic cooperation. Belarus puts forward its economic proposals and cooperation initiatives to demonstrate a new format of diplomacy of the post-pandemic future. We do not have time for a policy of double standards, hushing up and exploiting certain symbols. Now we need to work hard, come to grips with certain problems and set viable goals and objectives in the economy, foreign policy, social and cultural spheres that would enable us to make the most of what we have and to achieve the best results we can. In the post-pandemic period national leaders are expected to take dramatic steps and achieve results, primarily economic ones, that would raise the standards of living. This is relevant both for Belarus and for our brothers and sisters in the former Soviet Union space,” the analyst added.

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