MINSK, 2 June (BelTA) – Belarus and Pakistan have built candid and trust-based relations, Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly Vladimir Andreichenko said as he met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Pakistan to Belarus Sajjad Haider Khan, BelTA has learned.
“I would like to note that the relations between the Republic of Belarus and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan are sincere and are based on trust. As you know, in 2017 I visited your country as the head of a parliamentary delegation. We met with the president of your country, the speakers of the both chambers of the parliament, the prime minister, and a number of ministers. We drew up projects, programs of action and signed agreements on inter-parliamentary cooperation. We have set up working groups on parliamentary cooperation,” Vladimir Andreichenko said.
According to him, the two countries have made progress on a number of agreements. “A 45-tonne BelAZ truck is now operated in your country. We have started delivering milk powder and baby food to your country. It is encouraging that a business project to start assembling Belarusian tractors in the province of Punjab is under consideration now. A number of other issues have been resolved. Most importantly, the bilateral trade in 2020 amounted to $52 million,” the speaker noted. “Of course, not all projects came to fruition. Back then we held a wonderful business forum to discuss cooperation in agriculture. We agreed to set up an enterprise to process Belarusian poultry and produce baby food from Belarusian raw materials. However, due to a number of objective and subjective reasons, not everything was implemented. Yet, I think we can get back to these projects,” the speaker said.
Vladimir Andreichenko noted that agriculture is one of priorities for Pakistan. “In line with an agreement between the agriculture ministries of Belarus and Pakistan, this year or early next year we are to hold a business forum. We believe that it would be great to arrange this business forum simultaneously with the visit of the speaker of the National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the Republic of Belarus. We sent an invitation in January last year,” he said.
The bilateral cooperation is based on an extensive legal framework. “There are about 80 interstate, intergovernmental, interdepartmental documents. Commissions for trade, economic, R&D cooperation have been set up. In other words, we have everything in place to intensify our cooperation. I think that parliamentarians should also get involved in addressing these issues and most importantly, help our business community increase trade between our countries. We have no problems in political relations and I think that we should focus our efforts on growing bilateral trade. I want to say that we support the initiative of the Pakistani side to arrange a video conference between the heads of our commissions in order to hold a specific discussion of trade and economic cooperation. This can be done this month, I believe,” the speaker said.
According to the ambassador, this meeting at the parliament is a great honor for him. “I am very proud to see good relations between the two countries in all areas. The two heads of state maintain good relations, there is no misunderstanding between our countries. I believe that this gives an impetus to bilateral relations,” he said. “The 80 agreements that were signed over the past 5-6 years are a good foundation for building even better relations in the future. Over the past six months of my work in Belarus, I have made every effort to facilitate the implementation of the agreements that we have already signed,” the diplomat added.
