INSK, 1 November (BelTA) - The UAE is one of the main partners of Belarus in the Arab world, Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus Vladimir Andreichenko said as he met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Arab Emirates to Belarus Ibrahim Salim Mohamed Almusharrekh on 1 November, BelTA has learned.
“First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Arab Emirates to the Republic of Belarus and to wish you a pleasant stay in our country and successful work. I am confident that in this important post you will help the relations between our countries to develop even more successfully. The times we are living in are conducive to this. I am referring first of all to the strengthening of the political dialogue, growth in trade and attraction of big Emirati investors to the economy of Belarus. Probably the most important thing is that we have the basis for this,” Vladimir Andreichenko said.
According to him, for 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations cooperation has been developing in the spirit of friendship, trust, mutual understanding and mutual support. “I will say the main thing: today the United Arab Emirates is one of the main partners in the Arab world for the Republic of Belarus. It is important that there are regular contacts at the high and highest levels. Your country has been visited by the president of the Republic of Belarus several times. In 2019, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan paid his first visit to Belarus. Of course, today the global trends are such that we need to meet more often, to develop a political dialogue. That is why we will always welcome leaders and members of your government and MPs in our country,” the speaker added.
Inter-parliamentary relations are an important element in the development of interstate relations, Vladimir Andreichenko stressed. “MPs of Belarus and the United Arab Emirates should cooperate more actively both in the bilateral format and within the framework of inter-parliamentary structures. We have working groups for cooperation. It would be right for these groups to work out an agreement on cooperation between parliaments of our states in the nearest future. It would be good to sign this agreement during the visit of the speaker of the Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates to Belarus. We would like you to be involved in the implementation of this proposal, this initiative. MPs should also take a more active part in the work of the joint intergovernmental committee on cooperation. Preparations are now underway for a meeting of the sixth committee, which is set in 2023. We will have an opportunity there to coordinate our stances and determine the prospects for the new direction of work,” he added.
“There are a lot of areas of work. This, of course, the development of trade, investment attraction, humanitarian activities, tourism and development of the legal framework. We have a lot of interesting work to do. We are ready and interested in the development of all these relations,” the speaker said.
“For 30 years the relations between our countries have been rapidly developing and getting stronger. The main pillars of these relations are the personal relationship between the presidents of Belarus and the UAE. They set the tone for the development of interaction between the countries. This is a solid foundation for further achievements,” the ambassador added. “Of course, we have had a lot of achievements in the past, but we hope that we will be able to enhance the implementation of the agreements and memorandums that have been signed between our countries. I have come to a conclusion after studying the matter that, unfortunately, not all agreements and memorandums have been signed between Belarus and the UAE. We are ready to start implementing them. Our task is to facilitate the activation and implementation of these agreements and memorandums. We have high hopes for the sixth joint committee meeting, which will push us to implement the agreements. I hope that during this meeting we will also identify new mutual interests that we can implement in the current realities.”
The parties are set to discuss the issues of Belarusian-Emirati relations, including those between the legislative bodies of the two countries, strengthening of trade and economic cooperation, mutual support in international organizations.
