An archive photo
MINSK, 3 July (BelTA) – As an exporting country Belarus is interested more than anyone else in aligning the transport and logistics potentials of the EAEU and the SCO, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with the international news agency Kazinform in the run-up to the SCO summit in Astana, BelTA has learned.
“The creation of a sustainable transport and logistics framework in Eurasia with sufficient route capacity is one of the key integration tasks for the EAEU and the SCO. Indeed, it is impossible to maintain an effective trade system in the region without competitive logistics,” the Belarusian leader said.
He noted that this is an ambitious task given that the aggregate territory of the SCO member countries spans more than 35 million square kilometers, the total population is about 3.5 billion people (almost half of the world's population), and the total GDP is $25.5 trillion.
As for the EAEU, it is necessary to ensure unimpeded movement of goods worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In 2023 alone, this figure was almost $800 billion.
“The SCO accounts for about 40% of the exports of the EAEU member states. It is obvious that the mutual trade in goods made in the EAEU and the SCO countries will grow steadily,” said the president of Belarus. “Promising avenues of cooperation include the synchronization of the work to develop international transport corridors such as “North-South”, “East-West”, their alignment with the Belt and Road Initiative of our Chinese friends. This initiative was put forward by us some time ago, and a lot has already been done to bring it to fruition.”
In particular, during the First SCO Transport Forum in Tashkent in 2023, memorandums were signed to create two new international transport corridors: “Belarus - Russia - Kazakhstan - Uzbekistan - Afghanistan - Pakistan” and “Russia - Caspian Sea - Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Kyrgyzstan”.
The head of state remarked that changes in international trade and the the EAEU's refocusing on the growing markets of Asia and the Middle East have led to fundamental changes in the transportation sector and a complete transformation of logistics chains.
“When Lithuania and Poland unilaterally and illegally blocked Belarus’ access to the Baltic ports in 2020, we promptly redirected our logistics to Russian ports and embarked on expanding transportation options, which included infrastructure upgrade, with our partners from the EAEU and China. As they say, it was a blessing in disguise. Today we are increasing the volume of transportation, while the Lithuanian and Polish leadership report annual losses amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars,” the Belarusian leader noted.
According to him, the immediate task is to digitalize trade routes and create a coherent and clear-cut customs transit system that will be immune to political risks.
