Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 25 January (BelTA) - Friendship with India is important to Belarus, Belarus’ Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Dapkiunas said at a function to mark India’s Republic Day on 24 January, BelTA has learned.

“We are sincerely pleased with the development successes of this big country and are always ready to support its initiatives both in word and action, both in bilateral relations and at international venues. Last year we celebrated a milestone date, which is 25^th anniversary of the diplomatic relations,” the deputy minister stressed.

Andrei Dapkiunas considers it symbolic that the main event of the anniversary year was the visit of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to India. “During the meetings in New Delhi, the leaders of Belarus and India praised a high degree of convergence of political and economic interests of the two countries. Belarus and India re-discovered each other, found new common approaches and determined the priorities for joint work in order to take the bilateral relations onto a higher level,” said Andrei Dapkiunas.

“The main point of our joint work is the social significance of all major bilateral projects, including supplies of potash fertilizers and agricultural equipment to ensure food security in India, the production of medicines in Belarus with the participation Indian leading pharmaceutical companies, the participation of our country in the training professional and technical personnel for India or internships for Belarusian specialists under the Indian ITEC program. Everything is focused on improving the lives of citizens of the two countries, strengthening friendly relations and mutual support,” he added.

“The new large-scale project for the near future is the negotiations to conclude an agreement on the establishment of a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and India. Belarus is making its best to achieve important results in this work,” the deputy minister said.

He also drew attention to the need to continue to maintain momentum in bilateral cooperation. An exchange of visits makes a great contribution to this. Andrei Dapkiunas expressed confidence that the implementation of the plans will raise bilateral cooperation onto a qualitatively new level.