Events

20 Jul 2020

Parliaments of Belarus, UAE to search for new areas of trade, economic cooperation

An archive photo

MINSK, 20 July (BelTA) – The parliaments of Belarus and the UAE will make an emphasis on the search for new ways to intensify trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, Chairman of the International Affairs and National Security Commission of the Council of the Republic Sergei Rachkov told the media on 20 July, BelTA has learned.

The working group of the National Assembly of Belarus on cooperation with the Parliament of the UAE held a video conference with the group of friendship with the Belarusian Parliament in the UAE Federal National Council on 20 July. The parties discussed issues related to the development of inter-parliamentary cooperation. “We will search for new ways to intensify trade, economic, investment cooperation. I am confident that MPs of the two countries will find ways to intensify it,” Sergei Rachkov, the head of the group of friendship in the Belarusian parliament, said before the meeting.

According to the senator, the National Assembly has worked out a draft program of cooperation and submitted it to its counterparts in the UAE. “We will do our best to cooperate more actively in the international, inter-parliamentary arena, in the Inter-Parliamentary Union in particular. We will pay more attention to the implementation of the agreements reached between the two countries at the high and highest levels,” the chairman said. In his words, in 2019 Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan paid the first visit to Belarus in the history of the bilateral relations.

According to Sergei Rachkov, Belarus and the UAE have been successfully developing political, trade, economic and investment cooperation. In 2019, the mutual trade rose 45% to $105 million. The Belarusian export made up $85.2 million, up almost 50% as compared with 2018. Last year, the UAE placed fourth in the volume of investments in the Belarusian economy (exceeded $118 million).

The groups of friendship in the National Assembly of Belarus and the Federal National Council of the UAE were set up not long ago. “We are confident that our activities will help intensify cooperation in all areas: politics, trade, economy and investment. We will continue to seek common ground in the international arena and act as a united front where our interests coincide,” Sergei Rachkov noted.