Some figures were announced recently: in Q1 2025, the volume of foreign trade in goods and services increased by 1.8 percent (or $406m) in the republic. In his talk with Alfa Radio, the Dean of the Journalism Faculty at the Belarusian State University, political expert Aleksei Belyaev, commented on what a breakthrough Belarus is making in the world market.
Belarus’ top ten partners include Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Turkiye, India, Brazil, Uzbekistan, Germany, and Poland. Exports of services are developing dynamically, with an increase of 14.8 percent. The main markets to which Belarus increased its supplies in Q1 2025 were Africa (2-fold), Latin America (1.8-fold), and Asia (40 percent).
As noted by Mr. Belyaev, the Belarusian economy has always been export-oriented, and the country has been tasked to find new partners and sales markets, “Actually, two thirds of all Belarusian products are sold abroad. We always knew that exports were our focus, so we tried to build relations with the EU, the United States, and other countries. At a time when it was still more or less calm, we adopted a 30/30/30 strategy: one third of our sales headed to the EAEU and CIS markets, another one – to the European Union and the United States, and the remaining share went to the countries of the far arc: Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Today, due to sanctions, co-operation with the European Union and the United States is challengeable, but it is still present. Differently speaking, Belarusian enterprises and entrepreneurs still manage to trade using different schemes and workarounds, but all this leads to an increase in the cost of Belarusian products for the end user. Europeans continue buying our products, but they have to pay more now. Who did they make worse by sanctions?”
The expert added that Belarus has partner countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America that have not closed themselves off from the republic, and they allow Belarus to come to their markets and sell its products, “Various high-level meetings with representatives of these states indicate that we actually have opportunities for supplies and for interaction with the countries of the African continent. They need our cars, agricultural machinery, food, and most of all, technology and support for the creation of joint ventures and hubs that could transport our products from one country on the African continent to a number of others. We see the same situation in Asia: a number of Asian countries can become an entrance to the Asian market for us. Belarus has also established co-operation with China.”
With this in view, it is important for Belarus to go to the markets that are happy to welcome its products. According to Mr. Belyaev, the republic has much to offer to its buyers: i.e. it produces goods that the countries of the Global South need.
“They do not have their own enterprises, so there is a need for a number of goods that Belarus can provide,” the expert noted. “Firstly, our goods are high-tech, and secondly, these are goods that are not just some kind of services – which the West likes to trade in financial speculation: we offer products that persons and industries need – such as machine tools, equipment, cars, heavy-duty and agricultural machinery, urban transport, food, agricultural products, and much more. All this is produced in Belarus, and this is what we can export.”
