Belarus, Mali discuss supplies of mining, agricultural machinery, inter-parliamentary ties

MINSK, 5 March (BelTA) – Developing cooperation with African countries is one of the foreign policy priorities of Belarus, Chairman of the International Affairs and National Security Commission of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Sergei Aleinik told BelTA.

A meeting between Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova and a delegation from Mali, led by Vice-President of the Defense and Security Commission of Mali’s National Transitional Council Fousseynou Ouattara, took place at the Council of the Republic.

“This visit and the meeting at the Council of the Republic are a continuation of the work to establish interaction with the states of the African continent. The delegation of the Malian parliament arrived in Belarus to discuss ways and areas for deepening our relations, and not only political and inter-parliamentary ones. A serious emphasis was placed on the economic agenda in cooperation between Belarus and Mali. There are quite many elements in the program of this visit,” Sergei Aleinik emphasized.

“Belarus forges ties with African countries on an honest, predictable, mutually beneficial and equal basis. We offer African countries cooperation in those areas where we have strong competencies. These include the industry, technology and food products, which, by the way, we supply to 116 countries around the world. We hope that Mali will soon join these countries. There is interest in Belarusian baby food. In the future, I hope we will be able to reach concrete agreements in these areas,” the chairman of the Standing Commission on International Affairs and National Security continued. “Of course, this includes the social and humanitarian cooperation, in education and healthcare. All these areas are precisely of serious interest to Mali.”

“We have outlined avenues for further interaction and building practical relations, primarily in promoting agricultural mechanization. The Malian delegation was impressed by the range of agricultural machinery they learned about during a visit to the MTZ tractor maker that took place just the day before. There is an intention to specify this cooperation in the very near future,” Sergei Aleinik noted. “Serious interest for this country also lies in our vehicles: trucks, passenger vehicles, road construction machinery. And there is particular interest in Belarusian mining machinery, given the important role of the mining industry in Mali’s economy. Therefore, we have outlined concrete areas for practical cooperation.”

“Of course, we are also open for cooperation in healthcare and are eager to offer our capabilities in terms of education. Today, 1,600 students from various African countries are studying with us, so we expect that students from this African country will also enjoy the opportunities of Belarusian higher education and, possibly, technical education,” Sergei Aleinik said.

“We naturally also discussed issues of developing inter-parliamentary relations. This is the first parliamentary visit in the history of our bilateral relations, which have existed since 1993. We have agreed on the preparation of a corresponding agreement on inter-parliamentary cooperation. We expect that this work will be done promptly and that we will be able to sign this document in the near future,” the chairman of the Standing Commission stressed.

Sergei Aleinik also pointed out: “We expect a visit by the speaker of the Malian Parliament within this year. This topic was discussed. We will convey an appropriate official invitation and will prepare for this visit, during which, we hope, this agreement will be signed.”

“Taking into account the elaboration of specific areas of trade and economic cooperation, we hope that during this visit, it will be possible to sign concrete agreements on economic, social and humanitarian cooperation. Thus, we have quite serious work ahead of us to raise relations with the Republic of Mali to a qualitatively new level. I hope that through joint efforts, taking into account mutual interest, we will be able to successfully realize the existing potential that we have identified during this visit,” he said.

Photos by Kristina Aksenova/BelTA