Bilateral co-operation

On the first day of his visit to Dushanbe, Aleksandr Lukashenko met with President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon

It was a warm meeting of friends. This is the impression formed from the protocol part of the bilateral meeting. They have not seen each other for a long time, so many topics have accumulated, alongside the rich agenda of the upcoming summits. Therefore, in the presence of the press, the presidents dispensed with routine protocol speeches and rather quickly — without media representatives — moved on to negotiations behind closed doors.
The heads of state discussed the development of bilateral co-operation, the military-political situation in the region, as well as the agenda for the CSTO and SCO summits.
The Tajik leader received his Belarusian counterpart in his famous office decorated with wood carving in the Palace of the Nation. For the first time, Emomali Rahmon demonstrated the new interiors of the palace halls to Aleksandr Lukashenko in September 2018. They are decorated with skilful handmade wooden carvings in the national style, using such types of wood as pine, oak and beech. It took less than a year from the start of the project of the final implementation. Aleksandr Lukashenko highly praised the work of the Tajik craftsmen. “It’s not just beautiful — it’s amazing work,” he said. Emomali Rahmon promised that, if necessary, Tajikistan is ready to share their experiences and carry out similar work in Belarus.
Moreover, there was another meeting with the leadership of Tajikistan: on his arrival at the airport in Dushanbe, Aleksandr Lukashenko talked with the Prime Minister of the country, Kokhir Rasulzoda.

In Dushanbe, Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi

The Head of the Belarusian state said to the Pakistani leader, “We are extremely interested in collaboration with a huge country such as Pakistan. I believe that your specialists and members of the Government will find a lot of interesting things for Pakistan in Belarus.”  The President stated that now the trade turnover between the countries is very small. At the same time, he said, despite the difficult times — as they say in the world — the volume of mutual trade in the past and especially this year has grown significantly.
By the end of the year, Belarus’ Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei will pay a visit to Pakistan. The parties agreed to intensify work on the preparation of the meeting of the intergovernmental commission.
“This will allow us to intensify our contacts in all spheres. We have no closed topics in relations with Pakistan,” stressed the Head of State.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also noted the successful development of Pakistan, which is not stopped even by the difficulties in the region. “We will be glad to contribute to this development,” he concluded.
Imran Khan agreed that the region is now going through difficult times: countries are struggling with the consequences of the pandemic, new security challenges have emerged after the events in Afghanistan, and various political issues must also be resolved.
The Prime Minister noted that relations between the two countries have existed for a long time, especially when Belarus and Pakistan interact in agriculture and industry. He expressed the hope that the visit of the Belarusian delegation will contribute to the strengthening of bilateral interaction.
The interlocutors discussed in detail the situation in Afghanistan. Minsk and Islamabad intend to find new points of contact for mutual benefit. The President invited the Prime Minister of Pakistan to Minsk. There was also a response to the invitation, “We are looking forward to seeing you in Pakistan once again!”

Ebrahim Raisi previously visited Minsk, being the deputy head of the Iranian judiciary, and met with Aleksandr Lukashenko. Now the Belarusian Head of State first of all congratulated his colleague on his recent victory in the presidential election and noted, “No matter how the situation in the world developed, what the circumstances are, Iran and Belarus always found the paths that led us to success.”
During the meeting, the leaders of the two countries paid special attention to the sanctions issue. The Head of State noted that Belarus has always lived under sanctions, but for those who introduced restrictive measures against the country, this did not bring any effect, as in the situation with Iran. The President of Belarus stressed, “If the sanctions did any harm to Belarus, Iran, and other countries, it was only because we ourselves are to blame for this. We were not always negotiable, we did not always find the path we had to follow under the pressure of sanctions. Therefore, everything is in our hands.”
In his turn, Ebrahim Raisi noted that Belarus demonstrates good achievements in socio-economic development, which means that it successfully copes with pressure from outside and will overcome all difficulties.
“The Americans themselves always admit the fact that the policy of maximum pressure does not work. We believe that sanctions cannot stop Iran’s progress,” he emphasised.
The presidents of Belarus and Iran agreed that the level of relations between the two countries clearly does not correspond to the existing potential. An agreement was reached that the foreign ministers will soon update the roadmap for co-operation, according to which we will develop interaction, bearing in mind that we are connected by trade-economic, as well as strategic interaction. The task is to create, in every sense, favourable conditions for its development. By the next meeting of the leaders of the two states, there should be obvious positive steps forward and all problems that hinder interaction should be resolved. The presidents noted that they would be glad to meet in Tehran and Minsk.