Lukashenko: Belarus, China are as close as never before

21 May 2012

MINSK (BelTA) – Belarus and China have reached an unprecedented level of mutual trust and support, President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said as he met with Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China Lu Yongxiang on 21 May, BelTA has learnt.

According to the head of state, over 20 years since Belarus and China established diplomatic relations, the bilateral cooperation has reached a brand new level. In 2011, the trade exceeded $3 billion.

“We are proud that the Great China has been our strategic partner and staunch ally for many years,” Alexander Lukashenko underlined. He added that he is happy to welcome China’s parliamentary delegation in Belarus. The President emphasized that in recent years Belarus and China have developed strong ties on all levels. Close inter-parliamentary links are an essential part of the bilateral cooperation. “It is encouraging that each new meeting makes our cooperation more intensive and efficient,” the head of state said. In his words, Belarus values the arrangements reached during the visits of Vice-President of China Xi Jinping and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Wu Bangguo.

“It would not be exaggeration to say that we have reached an unprecedented level of mutual trust and support,” Alexander Lukashenko said. He noted that China’s President Hu Jintao made a personal contribution to that.

Belarus is very grateful to China for assistance at the international level in all areas. “We appreciate that at any moment China is ready to give us its support,” said the President of Belarus. He stressed that for its part Belarus has consistently supported China in particularly sensitive areas. “Our countries share common strategic objectives, have a similar vision of the major global problems and ways to solve them. We very much appreciate the strong ties with your country, which plays a critical role in ensuring stability and security in the world. And we are happy to see the international prestige and influence of China growing” Alexander Lukashenko said.

The head of state noted that Belarus and China have launched multimillion-dollar investment projects. “We signed major contracts in power engineering, construction, transport, communications, and manufacturing industry. We are interested in further boosting of the political, trade and investment cooperation, as well as effective cooperation in scientific, military, technical and humanitarian fields,” said the President of Belarus.

According to the head of state, in the future the two countries need to focus on high-tech, science-intensive projects that would contribute to the modernization of the economies and creation of high-tech industries. In this regard, the President of Belarus particularly welcomed the signing of an agreement to set up the Belarusian-Chinese commission for high-tech cooperation.

“Priority cooperation areas should be communications, space technologies, biopharmacy, new materials, energy, machinery and instrument engineering. The abovementioned areas are the investment in the future and the guarantee of independence and prosperity of our states,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

The Belarusian leader suggested discussing in detail the most important issues regarding the Belarusian-Chinese bilateral relations.

Lu Yongxiang, in turn, thanked the President of Belarus for all-round assessment of the Belarusian-Chinese cooperation and his close attention to the commission for high-tech cooperation. The Chinese official also shared his first impressions of the visit to Belarus: “Although we spent here less than 24 hours, we have noticed that the political and social situation in the country is stable and the economy is on the rise,” Lu Yongxiang said and added that, in his opinion, this is a demonstration “of successes of your people”. “We are sincerely happy for you. I believe that no one can deny your successes,” he said.

Lu Yongxiang also emphasized a considerable role the leadership of Belarus and China play in the advancement of bilateral relations. “Due to close attention of our leaders the bilateral relations have been highly vibrant recently. Political trust has considerably strengthened. Trade and economic cooperation has been constantly intensifying. The bilateral trade has increased 20 times since the diplomatic relations were established,” Lu Yongxiang said.