Belarus' cooperation with Russia in 2020 described as comprehensive

Strategic cooperation with the Russian Federation in 2020 continued to be comprehensive and multifaceted, Belarus' Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said as he spoke at the board meeting of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 25 February to review the performance of the diplomatic service in 2020. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, BelTA has learned.

"Strategic cooperation with the Russian Federation, which provided the most significant support to Belarus in the post-election period, continued to be comprehensive and multifaceted," the minister noted.

He stressed that during the Belarusian presidency in the EAEU the union strengthened cooperation with other regional associations: CIS, SCO and ASEAN .

"We continued to advocate the formation of sustainable mechanisms for a full-scale dialogue between the EAEU and the EU," said Vladimir Makei.

He also said that Belarus continued constructive cooperation with the majority of the CIS states and Georgia, with the primary aim of developing pragmatic economic cooperation.

"We regret to note that the Belarusian-Ukrainian relations have deteriorated. In the wake of Ukraine's position on Belarus the political dialogue got frozen in the second half of the year. This has already had a negative impact on the bilateral trade, despite the interest declared by the Ukrainian leadership in preserving economic ties," the minister said.