MINSK, 30 November (BelTA) – Belarus and Palestine need to intensify cooperation in trade and economy, 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 State of Palestine to the Republic of Belarus Ahmed Almathbouh, BelTA has learned.
“Belarus has fellow feelings towards your country. I think that people of Palestine know Belarus as a peace-loving, friendly state,” Vladimir Andreichenko said.
According to him, Belarus and Palestine have several promising areas for cooperation. “They include trade and economy, education, healthcare, mutual support in the international arena. As far as trade and economic cooperation is concerned, our bilateral trade is estimated at $6 million, which is not much. We can do much better. You have probably studied the capacities of the Republic of Belarus, toured our regions, visited ministries, enterprises. It is necessary to encourage business people to cooperate more actively. We expect that you will provide assistance in this regard, help arrange meetings between chambers of commerce and industry, visits of business circles to Belarus in order to build a better understanding of what Belarus can offer to your country. I think that in the future we could create a more significant tool to facilitate our cooperation. I mean a joint intergovernmental commission that would help promote cooperation in trade, economy, humanitarian matters, and healthcare. I believe we need it,” the speaker said.
“As for education, 36 students from Palestine studied in Belarus in 2021-2022, most of them were medical students. As our education minister noted during the conversation, we are interested in establishing contacts with your educational institutions. He told me that he forwarded cooperation proposals from eight Belarusian higher learning institutions to Palestine. Our universities want to build contacts, exchange best practices and encourage more students from Palestine to come to study in Belarus. We have not received a response yet. We have created a solid infrastructure in healthcare. We have a number of research centers with great specialists and equipment. I think this is an important area of cooperation. We are interested in hosting more foreigners for medical treatment in Belarus and in exchanging best practices. Moreover, I will say that our trade is mostly the supply of medicines from Palestine to Belarus,” Vladimir Andreichenko emphasized.
Belarus supports Palestine in international organizations, the speaker added. “The parliamentary network of the Non-Aligned Movement has been created quite recently. As far as I know, one of the chairs in this Non-Aligned Movement is a representative of Palestine. Therefore, we need to cooperate more actively in this parliamentary network and address all issues,” he stated.
The parties will discuss the state and prospects of the Belarus-Palestine inter-parliamentary cooperation, other topical issues of interaction.
