President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko makes working visit to Azerbaijan

Event gives reason to speak about friendship and beneficial partnership

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko makes working visit to Azerbaijan


In Baku, the Head of State has taken part in the official opening ceremony of the first European Games and has conducted a range of bilateral meetings, as well as visiting sports facilities.


Alexander Lukashenko during his meeting with Ilham Aliyev in Baku

On arriving in Baku, speaking to official representatives at the airport, Mr. Lukashenko underlined the friendly nature of our relations: between nations and our countries’ leaders. Belarus and Azerbaijan are close allies, enjoying robust bilateral relations, noted Mr. Lukashenko, on meeting his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev.

The Belarusian Head of State praised the level of Azerbaijan’s preparations for the first European Games, saying, “You had only two years to prepare. It would have been impossible if you had done nothing beforehand. We had no doubt that you would do everything to a high level. However, we didn’t expect it would be so beautiful; this has truly amazed us.”

The Belarusian President stressed that he felt compelled to attend the opening ceremony of this inaugural sporting forum. He had earlier expressed his wish to see Olympic scale events within the European continent.

The first European Games will be held in Baku until June 28th, with the Belarusian team represented by 151 athletes and 53 coaches. Belarusians will take part in the following disciplines: acrobatics, boxing, freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, road cycling, beach volleyball, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, canoeing and kayaking, judo, swimming, synchronised swimming, platform diving, trampolining, archery, marksmanship, table tennis, the triathlon, fencing, badminton, karate, sambo and taekwondo.

The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, told Mr. Lukashenko that Azerbaijan highly appreciates and is proud of its level of relations with Belarus. He noted that the leaders of our two countries maintain regular contact, bringing momentum to bilateral relations. “Belarus is a friendly and brotherly state. We highly appreciate our relations and take pride in the political and economic progress we have achieved over a short period of time, as well as in our joint projects. We see only positive dynamics across all areas,” noted Mr. Aliyev. “Our relations are sincere, reliable and aim at the successful implementation of our tasks,” he underlined.

Speaking about the first European Games in Baku, Ilham Aliyev noted that this event is a landmark for Azerbaijan and for all Europe. He noted that Belarus is represented by strong athletes, and wished our Belarusian sportsmen successes and victory.

Collaboration between Belarus and Azerbaijan is developing across all areas of mutual interest, with political dialogue at all levels. We are strategic partners constructively liaising within international organisations, including the UN and OSCE.

In 2014, trade turnover between our states totalled $330.8m (including $322.1m of exports). Last year, the major Belarusian export items to Azerbaijan were timber goods, tractors, components and spare parts for automobiles and tractors, milk and dairy products, engines, medications and goods from ferrous metal.

In 2014, Belarus imported from Azerbaijan oil products, acyclic hydrocarbons, clays, fruit and vegetable juices and ethylene polymers.

Since 2007 a range of joint projects have been implemented in the sphere of production co-operation, with assembly production of tractors, trucks, auto-cranes and lifts being set up in Azerbaijan. The leading Belarusian-Azerbaijani co-operation in the sphere of production co-operation is Ganja Automobile Plant. Projects are in the pipeline to set up joint productions of buses, detachable equipment, tractor trucks and medications.

The commodity distribution network of Belarusian manufacturers on the Azerbaijani market is expressed by three entities and 30 dealers, representing the interests of over 40 Belarusian exporters.

By Vasily Kharitonov
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