BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/06/2009

Belarus: Transcript of comments by Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov following a meeting with Israel Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on 4 June 2009

Sergei Martynov: Today, the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Avigdor Liberman, is visiting Belarus. We held negotiations in the Foreign Ministry. A meeting between the President of the Republic of Belarus and Israel Foreign Minister has just been over.

I would like to note that as a critical starting point or to some extent the basis of our relations we consider a very important component - a great number of our compatriots who live in Israel and do not break their ties with the motherland, and the motherland does not break ties with them. And our aim, as Foreign Ministers and Government Members, is to translate these human contacts into more considerable contacts and co-operation in economy that regretfully may not boast a large scale.

During today's negotiations, we discussed and agreed on the directions that could add to the substance of our economic relations. These are agriculture, food production and supplies to foreign markets, tourism both in Belarus and Israel, high technologies where both Israel and Belarus have large resources, as well as participation of Israeli business in major programmes that are being implemented in Belarus, including energy and other programmes.

We also agreed on enlarging co-operation between the Governments of the two countries as a whole in economy. The Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Co-operation will be established. It exists legally but it will be set in real motion. We scheduled a meeting of the Commission for this autumn. The Israeli side appointed its Co-Chair of the Commission. We agreed on the need to encourage inter-parliamentary co-operation - both parliaments have respective friendship groups. We are going to work to ensure that today's agreements are brought to fruition

"Respublika" Newspaper: On what commodities in the first place may and should we strengthen our relations and enlarge our trade turnover?

Sergei Martynov: Actually we highlighted these commodities. These are agricultural products, first of all, and science-intensive products. We hope there are special opportunities in these areas to move forward but no other areas are excluded - everything will depend on our and Israeli businesses and enterprises.

Source:

http://www.isria.com/pages/4_June_2009_86.htm

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