An entrance of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An archive photo
MINSK, 15 January (BelTA) – Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Aleinik highlighted the results of the ministry’s work last year and the plans for this year as he talked to ONT TV channel on 14 January, BelTA has learned.
Last year, the head of state set specific tasks to diversify exports and expand the geography of cooperation, the minister said.
"We undertook a certain reformatting of our diplomatic presence, reducing it in Western countries and increasing the number of diplomatic personnel in the Global South. We have certainly paid special attention to strengthening integration ties within the Union State of Belarus and Russia, within the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States. We have completed the chairmanship of the Republic of Belarus in the Collective Security Treaty Organization at a very decent level. We have also started the process of joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which will be continued and, I hope, completed in 2024. We have started the process of joining the BRICS. We participated in the BRICS summit for the first time last year. We paid a lot of attention to foreign economic activities, because exports are the absolute priority for the diplomatic service and for our ministry. The main emphasis was placed on geographical and commodity diversification into the countries of the global south," Sergei Aleinik said.
The 2023 statistics show that Belarus increased exports of goods and services. In terms of physical volumes this growth is quite significant, the minister said. "We will continue this work in 2024. We have a lot of activities planned for this year," the minister stressed. “We will continue the process of joining the SCO. Just a week ago, Belarus completed the process of ratification of the whole package of documents on our accession. We have acceded to 49 documents and we have already informed all SCO member states about the completion of internal procedures.
According to the minister, Belarus expects to complete the process of joining the SCO as a full member this year.
