BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

19/03/2009

Kazakh Ambassador, Chairman of Council of Republic of Belarusian National Assembly meet

MINSK. March 19. KAZINFORM Kazakh Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Belarus Anatoly Smirnov has held a meeting with Chairman of the Council of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Boris Batura in Minsk; Kazinform refers to the press service of the Kazakh embassy in Belarus.
During the meeting B.Batura noted that relations between Kazakhstan and Belarus are developing dynamically. Meetings of the presidents, premiers and parliament heads contribute to the development of these relations.

The Chairman of the Council of the Republic of Belarus expressed his opinion on the Kazakh President’s Message to the nation “Through Crisis to Renovation and Prosperity”. In particular, he said that goals and objectives outlined in this document are sensitizing the Kazakh people to emerge from the crisis stronger. According to B.Batura, the President of Belarus sets the same task to the Belarusian people. He noted that at present all countries are looking for a way to overcome the crisis and that he fully shares N.Nazarbayev’s position expressed in the Message.

The Belarusian representative welcomed the Kazakh President’s initiative to establish a single world currency, and emphasized that this initiative is a dominant topic worldwide.

Touching upon interaction of our countries on the international scene, B.Batura emphasized, that Belarus supported Kazakhstan’s candidacy as the OSCE chairman in 2010. He noted that he shares priorities voiced by Kazakhstan as future chairman of the Organization.

The Kazakh Ambassador, in his turn, informed the Belarusian side of the social-economic development of Kazakhstan, reforms on further democratization of the country’s political life, main foreign policy initiatives of Kazakhstan.

At the meeting the issues of further development of bilateral relations were touched upon. In this connection A.Smirnov noted the growth of trade turnover between the two countries in recent years and emphasized that the figure USD 537 mln does correspond to the two countries’ potential. The Ambassador proposed to develop interregional cooperation and informed of the work of the Embassy in this direction. In particular, A.Smirnov informed that visits of delegations of Karaganda oblast and “SamrukKazyna” Fund to Belarus are expected in March this year.

Speaking about specific areas of cooperation, A.Smirnov told about “30 corporate leaders” state program. In particular, he noted that despite the crisis the country continues financing all 45 projects of the program amounting to over USD 54 bln. He offered the Belarusian side to participate in these projects implementation.

At the meeting the sides noted the importance of activating of interparliamentary ties. In particular, B.Batura told about groups for cooperation created in two countries’ parliaments and emphasized the necessity to activate their work, proposed to create a joint interparliamentary commission.