Azerbaijan, Belarus mull economic cooperation

23 November 2020 14:05 (UTC+04:00)

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By Ayya Lmahamad

Trade and economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Belarus has been discussed during the meeting between Azerbaijani Ambassador to Belarus Latif Gandilov and Belarus Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, Azertag has reported.

The meeting focused on the positive dynamics of mutual trade growth between the two countries. Trade between Belarus and Azerbaijan grew more than 2.5 times and amounted to about $315 million in the past nine months of 2020.

Moreover, the sides underlined that industrial cooperation is also developing productively. Thus, one of the leading Azerbaijani enterprises, the Ganja Automobile Plant successfully works in cooperation with Belarusian machine builders. It was noted that over 11,000 Belarusian tractors and about 3,500 units of other equipment of famous Belarusian brands had been assembled at the plant since 2007.

Furthermore, the parties confirmed their mutual interest in the intensification and expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation.

It should be noted that Belarus is Azerbaijan’s third largest trade partner among the CIS countries, with trade amounting to $252.5 million. The export of Azerbaijani goods to Belarus amounted to $161.2 million, while the import to $91.3 million. The trade between the two countries amounted to $145.3 million in the same period last year.

Additionally, Azerbaijan exports oil to Belarus. Oil transportations from Azerbaijan to Belarus via the Odessa-Brody pipeline started in 2011. Although the contract provides for the transportation of 4 million tons of oil, the actual volume of the transported oil has been about 900,000 tons. Oil supplies from Azerbaijan to Belarus in the southern direction through Ukraine resumed in March due to the lack of the imports from major Russian companies because of price discrepancies. SOCAR sent the first tanker of Azerbaijani oil to the Belneftekhim by tankers from the Turkish port of Ceyhan to Belarus on March 5.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad