Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 14 April (BelTA) – Foreign countries would like to see Belarus as a reliable friend and partner for the sake of establishing relations in the spheres of politics, trade, economic, and humanitarian cooperation, in security matters. Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei made the statement as he summed up results of the Belarusian delegation’s participation in the Istanbul summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), BelTA has learned.

Speaking about expectations from the visit, the Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs said that they had been achieved and had been justified. “We always act bearing our national interests in mind. The president has given clear instructions to diversify foreign policy and foreign trade efforts and implement the multiple-vector principle de facto. The participation of the president and the Belarusian delegation in the summit is part of the multiple-vector principle,” said Vladimir Makei.

In his words, the summit offered an excellent venue for meeting with partners from the so-called distant arc countries. The summit allowed Belarus to establish new contacts and reach concrete agreements for the future. Nearly 60 OIC member states with the population of over 1 billion people represent a powerful potential for building mutually beneficial cooperation.

The Minister said that on the sidelines of the summit the Belarusian delegation had had over a dozen meetings with leaders of Turkey, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Qatar, Indonesia, and other countries. Matters concerning the development of trade and economic cooperation, which is extremely important for Belarus, were discussed during all the meetings. The sides also reached agreements on exchanging top-level visits, which invariably give a considerable impulse to partnering ties between countries. For instance, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit Belarus soon. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is expected to visit Pakistan in autumn. The organization of a number of other visits that will take place in the next few months is in progress.

Vladimir Makei underlined that Belarus’ views largely coincide with the views of the countries that had been represented during the summit. “Belarus is concerned about the same problems that Muslim countries are concerned about. Those are peace and security, terrorism, regional conflicts, financial and economic crises. The most important thing is that the speeches made by the Belarus president and other leaders were concordant in terms of the content and wording. Indeed, in order to resolve the mentioned problems it is necessary to unite and find compromise solutions even to the most complicated issues on the international agenda,” said the Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs.