ASTANA, 4 July (BelTA) – Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maksim Ryzhenkov will fly to Beijing after participating in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kazakhstan’s capital city of Astana, BelTA has learned.
Maksim Ryzhenkov said: “In furtherance of agreements with the Chinese side and in order to accomplish the tasks set by the president, I will fly to China from here. The itinerary is rather busy.”
The minister will have to attend quite significant protocol events relating to the solemn ceremony of hoisting the state flag of the Republic of Belarus at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization HQ in Beijing. “It will be done in the presence of the diplomatic corps with the relevant protocol arrangements,” Maksim Ryzhenkov explained.
Apart from that, the minister will have an entire series of meetings with representatives of China. The meeting with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi will be the key one. “We would like to review all the matters concerning the current state of affairs between Belarus and China. Matters of political, diplomatic, and economic nature,” the Belarusian minister of foreign affairs said.
In his words, he will also have to meet with top officials of the development agency, which takes care of the implementation of projects abroad. Major joint projects will be discussed in detail such as the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone, the development of the Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation, and other ones. “We will also have to lock in the agreements reached by the presidents today. Agreements on allocating a Chinese grant of about ¥100 million for implementing social projects in Belarus’ territory,” Maksim Ryzhenkov stated.
The minister is also expected to meet with officials of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. “We had very good contacts in the Administration [during Maksim Ryzhenkov’s tenure at the Belarus President Administration]. But I will come with a different status. It is a very important matter for advancing the political and diplomatic dialogue with the People’s Republic of China,” he noted.
Maksim Ryzhenkov also intends to visit a number of enterprises and organizations in China.
BelTA reported earlier that Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with China President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana.
Xi Jinping congratulated Aleksandr Lukashenko on Belarus’ acquiring a new status within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The China president said: “Your country celebrated Independence Day yesterday. Today your country has become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. I heartily congratulate you.”
He reminded that the Belarus president visited China twice in 2023. During the negotiations the parties sketched out plans for advancing all-weather strategic partnership. Tight contacts are maintained at all levels.
“We will definitely facilitate further stable development of our relations,” Xi Jinping stated. The Chinese leader added that the parties intend to go forward in this direction by leaps and bounds.
In turn, Aleksandr Lukashenko thanked the China president and the Chinese minister of foreign affairs for the colossal support Belarus had received on the way to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization membership.
“I am very glad that you are about to become the presiding country [in 2025]. It means I will have an extra opportunity to visit the People’s Republic of China next year. I’ve noted down your initiatives that you promote in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: global security, global development, global civilization, global control of artificial intelligence. You’ve already noticed positive and negative aspects of artificial intelligence. We support all your initiatives by all means. Particularly the key initiative to resolve the Ukrainian crisis. This initiative is consonant with Brazil’s initiative,” the president noted.
After completing the main bilateral meeting involving their delegations, the leaders of Belarus and China returned to the SCO+ summit. After that they resumed one-on-one negotiations. Aleksandr Lukashenko and Xi Jinping talked at length. The Chinese minister of foreign affairs joined the conversation when necessary.
