Ministry of Foreign Affairs Reports

       Welcome to Radio Belarus!
Roman Nestor is here with a selection of highlights from the Belarusian international contacts agenda.
 
Belarus is in negotiations with Kazakhstan to discuss prospects of buying not only oil, but also oil products for consequent conversion at Belarusian oil refineries, BelTA learned from Ambassador of Belarus to Kazakhstan Anatoly Nichkasov. The ambassador noted: “As for our cooperation in trade in hydrocarbons, Belarus has repeatedly glanced at Kazakhstan as a partner for acquisitions. This year the head of state has given the relevant instructions to negotiate the matter with Kazakh producers.” In his words, a situation emerged at the beginning of the year when upgraded Kazakh oil processing enterprises often make excessive amounts of oil products. In turn, Belarus has the capacity to make high-quality oil products. “It is not the first experience of cooperation for us. At the same time we are now in negotiations in order to considerably increase the volume of deliveries,” Anatoly Nichkasov said. The ambassador mentioned that instructions had already been given to deliver oil products to Belarus for processing using tolling contracts. Not only trade in crude oil is under consideration but also sales of derivative oil products.
 
      Belarus and Kazakhstan will always maintain good and kind relations, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Nur-Sultan on 28 May, BelTA informs. “Belarus and Kazakhstan will always maintain good and kind relations. I do not have any doubts that we will make even more progress in our relations,” the Belarusian head of state emphasized. Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that he had recently met with Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Belarus to discuss the prospects of advancing bilateral cooperation in certain fields.
     Aleksandr Lukashenko thanked Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for the meeting ahead of the presidential election in Kazakhstan and expressed confidence about the future of the bilteral relations:

I am thankful for this meeting in such a complicated time. I think that you’ve made the right decision to take part in the election although the election campaign is not easy. You explained very well that people need stability, that the president should be legitimate. I absolutely support the developments in Kazakhstan. I understand my friend Nursultan Nazarbayev for whom the well-being of Kazakhstan is a priority. I wish you every success at this stage and I am absolutely sure that we will be able to ensure further progress in our relations.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in turn, stressed that people in Kazakhstan respect the Belarusian leader very much. He also thanked the Belarusian leader for a warm meeting in Minsk in the autumn of 2018 when he visited Belarus as the head of the parliamentary delegation.

The presidents of Belarus and Russia, Aleksandr Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin, are expected to attend the 6th Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia due to take place in St Petersburg in July, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei told a press conference following the talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on 27 May, BelTA has learned. The parties are actively preparing for this important event, he added.
In general, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov confirmed the interest of the two countries in advancing integration processes. The sides discussed in detail many aspects of global and regional cooperation, security problems, and matters of current interest in the bilateral relations. “We’ve confirmed the interest of our countries in advancing integration processes in the Eurasian Economic Union, in taking interaction in the CIS space, in the Collective Security Treaty Organization to the next level,” Vladimir Makei said. According to him, the sides also discussed cooperation within the framework of the United Nations Organization, the OSCE, and other international organizations, paid close attention to matters of ensuring regional and international security.

Kazakhstan's policy of Eurasian integration will not change, said Ambassador of Kazakhstan to our country Yrrmukhamet Yertysbayev. He stressed that Belarus and Kazakhstan are close allies and strategic partners. With regard to turnover, last year it amounted to about a billion dollars:
27.05 Адамовіч  Ертысбаеў
There has never been and never will be an alternative to the Eurasian integration. It is good that Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan were among the founders of the EAEU. We have since been joined by Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. I do believe that the number of member countries is going to grow. As for Belarus, our trade is almost a billion U.S. dollars because there is a free flow of capital, property, goods, even labor.  This is a very beneficial foe everyone. We have been going this this route and will continue doing so. We will be working to expand the Eurasian union, to raise it to a new qualitative level. It will be attractive not only for the former Soviet Union republics. It is my firm belief that 21st century is the century of integration.

Belarus and Russia have agreed to prepare an action program on integration in the Union State of Belarus and Russia by 21 June. Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Rumas made the relevant statement after recent meeting with Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, BelTA has learned. In his words, negotiations with Dmitry Medvedev touched upon a broad economic agenda of the bilateral relations. Discussing proposals on further advancing the integration was the main goal.
The Russian side had previously submitted its proposals to the Belarusian side. Belarus’ proposals had also been forwarded to Russia. “Today the main goal of our negotiations was to take another look at the differing provisions in the Belarusian and Russian drafts. We have similar views on most of the things concerning further advancement of integration. We are already working on most of these matters within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union but taking into account the mutual will and views of the two countries, we could do this work faster within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia,” Sergei Rumas said. The sides have different views on roughly 30% of the provisions. Complicated matters, on which the sides hold different views for now, were discussed during the talks.

The exemptions and restrictions that are in effect in the Eurasian Economic Union have a negative impact on the perception of the organization, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei told reporters after recent meeting with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
At the same time, Vladimir Makei noted that over the past five years the EAEU member states managed to achieve certain successes:

      Over these five years we have been able to create a system of multilateral economic cooperation that gave a boost to mutual trade between the member states. Apart from that, other countries are also showing interest in the EAEU – about 30 states have already showed their willingness to sign a free trade zone agreement with the EAEU member states.
       As the Minister further pointed out, the Belarusian side wants wants a balance between Eurasian and European economic integration processes, but unfortunately, the remaining issues in the union make some external players skeptical about it. “However, we strongly believe that we need to remove all barriers in mutual trade, promote cooperation in the manufacturing industry, ensure free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce, and this is a quite ambitious task,” Vladimir Makei said. He emphasized that these matters will dominate the agenda of Belarus’ forthcoming four-year presidency in Eurasian organizations.