NUR-SULTAN (TCA) — Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko plans to visit Kazakhstan in the near future. The Belarusian leader said this as he met with outgoing Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to Belarus Ermukhamet Ertysbayev on August 28 in Minsk, BelTA news agency reported.
“I believe that soon I will have an opportunity to visit Kazakhstan and we will discuss the whole range of our relations. We, together with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, agreed to revise our relations and work out a plan of action for the future (or, as it is often said today, a roadmap of our relations for the coming years). We will approve this roadmap in Nur-Sultan. But before, our intergovernmental commission will take a look at all the issues we have and make decisions on our further relations,” the Belarusian president said.
Ertysbayev told journalists after his meeting with the Belarusian president that the Belarusian leader is expected to visit Kazakhstan in late October 2019.
“We are looking forward to Aleksandr Lukashenko’s visit to Kazakhstan. This visit will strengthen the strategic partnership and take our relations onto a higher level,” the Kazakh diplomat said.
During their meeting Lukashenko said to Ertysbayev that there are great prospects for further development of cooperation between Belarus and Kazakhstan.
“Our prospects and opportunities are even bigger than the results we have achieved. With such an advanced level of integration we can hope for more than $1 billion worth of bilateral trade. We should have several billions. And we can do it,” the Belarusian president said.
In 2018, bilateral trade reached $896 million (up 30% from the level of 2017). Belarus’ export was $783.7 million (up 32.3%), import reached $112.3 million (up 15.6%).
Kazakhstan’s investments to the Belarusian economy exceeded $18.8 million (up 4.8 times from the level of 2017). In January-June 2019, bilateral trade made up $481.7 million (up 11.8% from the same period of 2018).
Major Belarusian exports to Kazakhstan are tractors, milk and dairy products, butter, harvesters, potash fertilizers, furniture, beef, freight vehicles, cheese and quark. Kazakhstan exports oil products, coal, cotton fiber, flax seeds, and raw aluminum to Belarus.
