Belarusian products offered to UAE

MINSK, 28 March (BelTA) – Belarusian companies can offer a wide range of goods, which are in demand on the market, to the United Arab Emirates. The choice includes industrial products, primarily trucks and road machines, food, chemicals, and many other ones. The information was released by Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Mr Valentin Rybakov on 28 March, BelTA has learned.

He said that the UAE is the key trade partner of Belarus among the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Belarus has always had a surplus in foreign trade with the UAE. In 2012 Belarus exported nearly $50 million worth of merchandise and services to the UAE, nearly a third up from 2011. The main exports were chemicals, potash fertilizers, bearings, transport and technical services.

Valentin Rybakov remarked that the two economies are mutually complementary. “We consciously focus on stepping up economic cooperation, the achievement of practical results in trade and investments in order to use it to complement the existing good political relations,” said the Deputy Foreign Minister.

In the last 20 years the two countries have established good relations with a high degree of trust and an active political dialogue. Valentin Rybakov attributed the result to good personal contacts between the leadership of Belarus and the United Arab Emirates. It is often the determining factor taking into account peculiarities of the Arab Peninsula countries.

He pointed out that the visits of the Belarus president to the UAE in 2000 and 2007 as well as the mutual opening of the diplomatic missions were focal points in Belarus-UAE interaction. The Belarusian embassy started working in Abu Dhabi in 1999 while the embassy in Minsk was opened in 2008. Apart from that, top-level visits are exchanged regularly. The parliaments of the two countries have established friendship groups.

Cooperation in international organizations is productive. In particular, the UAE actively supports Belarusian initiatives to counteract human trafficking. Mutually beneficial contacts have been established along the line of the interior ministries, primarily in the education of UAE specialists, cooperation in special matters is successful.

Valentin Rybakov emphasized that the two countries had established a solid legal base: two dozens of intergovernmental agreements and interagency ones in various spheres have been signed. The number includes documents on trade and economic cooperation, the mutual protection of investments, the avoidance of dual taxation, and on air service. Several new documents are being prepared.

Cooperation in culture and mass media advances, too. In September 2010 Abu Dhabi hosted Belarusian Culture Days. The event allowed UAE residents to get familiar with Belarusian traditions. A while ago a group of UAE reporters visited Belarus on a media trip, with a series of reports about the country made.