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Senator: India is very important for Belarus as gateway to third-country markets

MINSK, 2 February (BelTA) - India is very important for Belarusian exporters as a gateway to third-country markets, Chairman of the International Affairs and National Security Commission of the Council of the Republic Sergei Rachkov told reporters as he attended a meeting between Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to Belarus Alok Ranjan Jha in Minsk on 2 February, BelTA has learned.

"Our countries maintain good political ties, trade and investment cooperation. We actively support each other in international organizations, and are implementing a lot of joint initiatives and projects," Sergei Rachkov noted. “Today India is very important for Belarusian exporters as a gateway to third-country markets. Over the past five years, mutual trade has been growing rapidly. In 2020, our trade reached almost $600 million. These are significant figures. We are supplying quarry equipment, tractors, food, and petrochemical products. We have very serious groundwork in this regard and the prospects are very good."

The senator stressed that Belarus has accumulated almost $5 million of direct investments from India. "We are interested in cooperation with India in the field of pharmaceuticals, and this cooperation has been growing nicely. We import medicines, including those to counter the coronavirus infection," he said.

The parliaments of the two countries cooperate actively. "We are committed to continuing exchanges of parliamentary delegations. We are ready to host Indian MPs, show them our country and inform them about the real situation in the country. A friendship group has been established in the National Assembly of Belarus. Now the Parliament of India is completing the formation of its friendship group. I hope that in the near future our MPs will be able to discuss the prospects for the development of bilateral parliamentary relations, will begin to exchange visits and videoconference to discuss topical issues, primarily in the field of economy, humanitarian cooperation," Sergei Rachkov noted.

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