Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko arrived in Azerbaijan for a two-day official visit on November 20.

Lukashenko visited the Alley of Honors to lay a wreath on the tomb of Azerbaijan's national leader Heydar Aliyev.

The Belarusian President also put flowers on the graves of prominent ophthalmologist academician Zarifa Aliyeva, state figure Aziz Aliyev, and Professor Tamerlan Aliyev.

Lukashenko also attended the opening of the Belarusian Embassy's new building in Baku together with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

The Presidents of the two countries cut a ribbon symbolizing the opening of the building.

The Presidents were informed that the construction of the building started in June, 2012. The four-storey building will house both the Embassy and the Consulate of Belarus. There is also a five-storey residential block for the staff members of the diplomatic corps.

The Presidents also planted a tree in the Embassy's yard.

Later, Aliyev and Lukashenko viewed the machinery and vehicles produced jointly by the Ganja Automobile Plant and Belarus Tractor and Automobile Plant.

Lukashenko was officially welcomed by President Aliyev on November 21.

Azerbaijani state and government officials were introduced to the Belarusian President, and the members of the Belarusian delegation were introduced to President Aliyev.

Later, the Presidents of the two countries had a one-on-one meeting in Baku.

During the meeting, the Presidents hailed the rapid development of bilateral relations in political, economic, cultural, and humanitarian fields, and underlined good opportunities for expansion of ties between the two countries in a wide range of areas.

The Presidents also expressed confidence that the Belarusian president's visit to Azerbaijan would contribute to strengthening the bilateral relations.

Following the one-on-one meeting, Aliyev and Lukashenko were joined by their countries' delegations for an expanded meeting.

After the expanded meeting, the Presidents signed a joint declaration.

According to the document, Lukashenko and Aliyev confirmed their commitment to expanding and strengthening the long-standing friendly ties between Azerbaijan and Belarus based on mutual trust and support.

The heads of state expressed satisfaction with Belarus-Azerbaijan cooperation in bilateral and multilateral frameworks.

They noted that bilateral cooperation has made tremendous progress since the establishment of diplomatic relations.

The parties also said that they would like to promote a political dialogue on various levels and boost cooperation in economy, trade, defense sector, tourism, science, education, culture, healthcare, environmental protection, and other fields.

The presidents noted that Belarus and Azerbaijan have similar positions on many topical issues of the international agenda.

They emphasized the importance of closer collaboration in the international arena, including within the framework of the UN, OSCE, the Non-Aligned Movement, and Eastern Partnership.

They also urged a prompt settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in line with the principles and rules of international law.

Their joint declaration praised Azerbaijan's work as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2012-2013.

The document also highlighted trade and economic cooperation. The Presidents pledged to encourage business activities by means of economic, financial and legal incentives.

Belarus and Azerbaijan formalized their intention to increase cooperation in trade and engineering, culture, education, and information technologies, and establish contacts between creative, scientific and other unions and foundations.

Azerbaijan and Belarus also signed a package of bilateral documents on the development of cooperation in various fields. The signed documents included a protocol on amendments and additions to the agreement on cooperation and mutual assistance on issues of tax compliance between the governments of the two countries, a protocol on amendments to the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of standardization, metrology and certification, an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of pension provision, and an agreement on cooperation in the field of combating money laundering and other property obtained by criminally means and financing terrorism.

A number of documents signed during Lukashenko's visit to Baku were in the educational field. In particular, Belarus State University and High technologies Park inked an agreement on cooperation with Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. The education ministries of the two countries signed a protocol on the establishment of new education facilities in Azerbaijan.

Aliyev and Lukashenko held a joint press conference afterwards.

President Aliyev said that Azerbaijani companies may take part in the privatization processes in Belarus.

According to him, Azerbaijan-Belarus relations gain serious content and now span many areas.

"Today we have discussed important matters of cooperation in education, humanitarian cooperation, science, high technologies, agriculture, manufacturing, military and technical cooperation, and power engineering. The enumeration of these areas speaks for itself. Each area has achieved good results. There are concrete projects and programs," Aliyev said.

The Azerbaijani President also said that the sides agreed to bolster efforts to advance cooperation in the areas where good progress has been made, and also venture into new areas.

"Among the new topics of our bilateral relations, we have determined the possibility of investments, the participation of Azerbaijani enterprises in privatization in Belarus, and a joint advancement to third-country markets with jointly manufactured products. We will do our best to make these areas part of our extensive bilateral agenda," Aliyev said.

The Azerbaijan President also said that in the last few years bilateral relations had gone a long way to reach a very high level. The two countries vigorously cooperate in trade and economic affairs and support each other in the international arena.

The Belarusian President invited Azerbaijani businessmen to invest more actively in its economy.

According to Lukashenko, oil and chemistry industry, agriculture, chemical industry, and pharmaceuticals can be promising areas for Azerbaijan's investments.

He went on to say that Belarus could help Azerbaijan with the development of the pharmaceutical industry.

The Belarusian President also noted that the two countries successfully cooperate in cultural and humanitarian areas.

"I would like to reiterate that there are no closed topics in our cooperation," Alexander Lukashenko stressed.

President Aliyev hosted an official dinner in honor of Lukashenko afterwards.