Prime Minister Imran Khan will likely to sign a key deal on trade and economic cooperation with Belarus during his visit to Minsk in next year.
Pakistan and Belarus are working on the cooperation roadmap for 2020-2022. The two sides are planning to finish the document at a Joint Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation meeting, to be held in March 2020.
Officials confirmed that Islamabad and Minsk will sign the document during the upcoming visit of Pakistan’s prime minister to Belarus. They said that Pakistan and Belarus are gearing up for the sixth meeting of the joint commission.
Last week, Belarus Ambassador Andrei Yermolovich called on Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar in Islamabad and proposed the idea of signing of 20 different memorandums of understanding with Pakistan, covering its heavy industry and tourism sectors.
Both the sides showed mutual interests in providing boost to the agriculture sector by providing tractors and harvesters. The Belarus ambassador said that President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus gave great importance to improving relations with Pakistan.
He said that Belarus wants to bring amendments in visa provision policies. In 2018, Belarus introduced visa-free entry for 74 countries in the world, allowing citizens of these countries to stay visa-free up to 30 days. This has resulted in positive changes in the quality of Belarusian services in the main cities and economic benefits for the country.
Although the complicated procedure of visa-free entry caused difficulties for some foreigners, the number of tourists to Belarus has gradually increased, according to the Belarusian media reports. Federal Minister Hammad Azhar informed Ambassador Andrei Yermolovich that Pakistan had been working to improve ties with this Eastern European country.
In order to fill the event with practical content and agreements leading to projects in agriculture, textiles, pharmaceuticals and other industries, both Pakistan and Belarus agreed to convene interagency working groups handling cooperation in these areas prior to the commission’s meeting in Minsk, the Belarusian Telegraph Agency reported.
The draft roadmap document covers the main promising areas of bilateral cooperation. The diplomatic mission said that the visit of the Pakistan prime minister has been scheduled for the first half of the next year. Officials in Islamabad and Minsk are still discussing the date of the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan.