MINSK, 23 November (BelTA) – Chairman of Belarus' House of Representatives Vladimir Andreichenko pointed to the importance of Belarus-Kazakhstan cooperation in international organizations as he met with outgoing Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to Belarus Yergali Bulegenov on 23 November, BelTA has learned.
The speaker thanked the ambassador for his contribution to Belarusian-Kazakh cooperation in all fields – politics, economy, culture, education, and interregional contacts. “The most important thing is that relations between our countries have seen many changes over this period of time. We have created the Eurasian Economic Union. This was not easy and you made a lot of effort. We ratified the EAEU Treaty virtually at the same time,” Vladimir Andreichenko recalled.
He drew attention to the fact that when Yergali Bulegenov was in office, the Belarusian and Kazakh parliaments signed a cooperation agreement, the countries exchanged a series of high-level bilateral visits.
Vladimir Andreichenko said he attaches great importance to Belarus-Kazakhstan cooperation in international organizations, for instance, in the Interparliamentary Union and in the OSCE PA. “The 26th session in Minsk was an example of such cooperation. Several anti-Belarus resolutions have been prepared but Kazakhstan provided us with full backing, voted against them, and supported Belarus-authored anti-drug resolution,” the speaker remarked.
He stressed the importance of expanding Belarus-Kazakhstan economic contacts. The countries managed to reach around $500 million in trade in January-September 2017. The speaker believes that this number is a serious indicator of both countries' effort.
In turn, Yergali Bulegenov thanked Vladimir Andreichenko for the high opinion of his diplomatic work. He expressed confidence that Belarus-Kazakhstan trade will keep growing. “We already had almost $1 billion in trade in 2014, and I believe that this number can be reached in 2018, too,” the ambassador said.
