Lukashenko to visit UAE and Zimbabwe
The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, will pay visits to the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Zimbabwe in the coming days – as BelTA was reported in the Belarusian leader’s press service
“At the invitation of the leadership of the United Arab Emirates and the President of Zimbabwe, the Belarusian Head of State will visit these countries in the coming days. During the visit, the President of Belarus is scheduled to have a number of meetings and negotiations,” the press service informed.
The topic of co-operation with the Emirates has been recently raised by Aleksandr Lukashenko during his visit to the Intellectual Belarus exhibition. The two countries are implementing a range of large-scale projects. During the expo, the developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) were of particular interest to the Head of State. He discussed this topic earlier during meetings with foreign partners, including those from the United Arab Emirates, who are seriously engaged in this area. Aleksandr Lukashenko is ready to additionally assist in the development of co-operation between the Emirati side and Belarusian partners, “I am invited to the UAE. They are seriously engaged in artificial intelligence there. If you need help, I can do it. Because, oddly enough, I stood at the beginning of work on the creation of artificial intelligence. There are Chinese scientists there. They [the Emirates side] invited them and gave them money. They worked seriously, and they asked me to help them work in Belarus. I definitely welcomed this endeavour. I will meet with the person who is engaged in this and finances this area.”
In this regard, Aleksandr Lukashenko also recalled the project to build an experimental Severny Bereg multifunctional complex in Minsk.
“Why did I agree for this? Not only because there will be $5bn of investments, but they promised me to create this smart city and a powerful educational platform for AI there. There will be a university, we will train people,” the Head of State said. “If you need support or great contacts with these people (they are far advanced in this regard), I can help.”
In general, trade-economic interaction between Belarus and the UAE is steadily developing. Joint interests and prospects for co-operation lie in such areas as investment, industry, agriculture, banking and finance, as well as transport and logistics, education and research, sports and tourism.
In 2021, Belarus took part in the EXPO-2020 World Exhibition in Dubai. The National Day of Belarus at the exposition was organised in November.
“Belarus and the United Arab Emirates boast the closest relations, with the history of diplomatic relations going back over 30 years. Today, the UAE is an important trading partner for us in the Gulf region, a significant investor in the Belarusian economy. Over the past five years, the trade turnover has more than tripled. The volume of bilateral trade in services is steadily growing. We will continue to strive for mutually beneficial collaboration in trade,” Belarus’ Economy Minister Aleksandr Chervyakov said at the opening ceremony of the National Day at EXPO 2020.
The complementarity of the economies of Belarus and the UAE is a favourable factor for the development of trade-economic liaisons, Belarus’ PM Roman Golovchenko noted in December 2022, “I note with satisfaction the significant growth in foreign trade this year. It is necessary to maintain the dynamics achieved and ensure a further increase in trade.”
According to the Belarusian Head of Government, our country seeks to use the opportunities of the capacious UAE market for the export of goods and services while using the transport and logistics advantages of delivering its products from the UAE to the countries of the Middle East and Africa. Belarus counts on counter initiatives from the Emirati business.
As far as Zimbabwe is concerned, Belarus has a long history of relations with this partner in southern Africa. In general, much attention is paid to co-operation with the countries of the African continent, e.g., Aleksandr Lukashenko made visits to Egypt and Sudan several years ago. Even earlier, the relations with Libya were actively developing, but this process was hindered by the civil war and political instability in this country, which were, among other things, the result of Western intervention.
Belarus also boasts mutual interests with a range of other African states. During a meeting on Belarusian foreign policy priorities in summer 2017, Aleksandr Lukashenko announced the need to develop a fully-fledged long-term strategy for interaction between Belarus and African countries.
“It is necessary to get away from the practice of working in this direction in haste, from visit to visit. It is necessary to have a fully-fledged long-term strategy for co-operation with African countries, as in a number of European states comparable to Belarus,” the President said.
Taking into account the stable high growth of developing economies, the importance of expanding the Belarusian presence in the African market is increasing.
“We are working there, but the scale needs to be expanded. One should not think that Africa is a complete poverty, and they have nothing to pay there. Nothing like that! Without the resources of this continent, the world today is not able to develop dynamically,” the Head of State underlined. “We should not miss our opportunities in the competition for African markets. There is a lot of hard work to be done here.”
In June 2017, the first Belarusian-African forum – Belarus and Africa: New Horizons – was held in Minsk. The second such event took place in May-June 2021. Then, representatives of state bodies, business and financial circles from thirteen African states – Gabon, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, the Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia and South Africa – arrived in Belarus to participate in the forum.
Returning to Zimbabwe, it should be noted that the leadership of this country has long been interested in liaisons with Belarus. In the history of bilateral relations, there are also visits at the top and high levels, e.g., in April 2011, Vice-President of Zimbabwe John Nkomo was welcomed in Minsk.
“We would like very much and, apparently, it will be so, that from this day we will begin to more intensively improve relations between our countries,” the Belarusian Head of State noted then. “We hope that co-operation with your country will enable us to expand interaction with other African states from your territory. There is no direction, no industry where we would not find common interests.”
A few years later, in July 2015, the current leader of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who at that time served as Vice-President, arrived in Belarus.
“I think that our collaboration should start with particular projects. Let them be just a few, but this will be a signal not only for entrepreneurs in your country, but also for other states with which you border, a signal for co-operation with our country. We are keen on this,” the President of Belarus suggested then.
In his turn, Emmerson Mnangagwa said that the Zimbabwean side is interested in expanding trade-economic co-operation, as well as interaction in such areas as agriculture, mining, and infrastructure.
In January 2019, Emmerson Mnangagwa was welcomed in Minsk as the head of state. Belarus offered Zimbabwe to build a strategy and a specific plan for the development of co-operation in the future.
“We liaise very effectively with the countries of North Africa, primarily with our friendly partner Egypt, Algeria and other states. In Central Africa, we have been co-operating with Sudan for a long time. We would like to have very close liaisons with the states of South Africa. We have visited many African countries and see a big front for Belarus in Zimbabwe,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said during the talks.
At the same time, the President of Belarus said that he would pay a visit to Zimbabwe with great pleasure but stated the need to agree and implement four or five certain projects there beforehand.
“These should be the projects that the entire Zimbabwean people would see,” he noted. “Zimbabwe is our important partner in the South African region, and we are striving to gradually reach the highest strategic level of co-operation. At present, the relations between the two countries are developing dynamically. However, significant potential for interaction has not yet been realised in many respects. In the coming years, we will have to do this, especially in the areas of trade and the economy.”
As far as bilateral co-operation was concerned, they discussed the supply of trucks, buses and quarry machinery, as well as other mining equipment, tractors, and food products to the Zimbabwean market. They also tackled the prospects for Belarusian participation in joint projects in agriculture, construction, power engineering, exploration, mining, and transport. Collaboration in the fields of education and medicine was also high on the agenda.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, in turn, stressed that the main goal for Zimbabwe in co-operation with Belarus is the development of economic relations.
“We boast excellent political relationships that we can continue to deepen and consolidate. But it is even more important to work on economic co-operation issues. This is the goal that Zimbabwe faces,” he said. “Yes, Zimbabwe has untapped resources in agriculture and extractive industries. But we do not have enough funds and skills to develop them. For this, we need the help and assistance of our friends, such as the Republic of Belarus. We are here with full confidence that we will receive such assistance that will allow us to move forward.”
