Belarus and Azerbaijan need to maintain momentum in trade and economic cooperation, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko said as he met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Republic of Belarus Ulvi Bakhshaliyev, BelTA has learned.

“The visit of the Belarusian president to Azerbaijan in April 2021 gave a powerful impetus to our joint work. Despite certain pandemic-related restrictions, our cooperation is gaining pace in all areas. Bilateral trade approached $800 million in January-November 2021, nearly two times as much as in the same period in 2020. It is important for us to make sure that our trade and economic cooperation will maintain momentum,” Igor Petrishenko said.

According to him, manufacturing is one of the most important areas of cooperation. Thus, the assembly production of Belarusian machinery at Ganja Automobile Plant is up and running.

“In addition, we have agreed that our design bureaus will discuss in detail a possibility to take part in infrastructure projects and construction of agro-towns. Cooperation in agriculture holds a lot of promise, too. Our agriculture ministries are actively interacting; cooperation plans have been outlined for animal husbandry, milk processing, and crop production,” the deputy prime minister noted.

Ministerial and inter-parliamentary cooperation, contacts in culture, science, education, and tourism are getting increasingly vibrant. “We are working to implement the initiative of the president of Azerbaijan to hold a youth forum. It is scheduled for February this year, we plan to send a delegation of more than 20 people to exchange views and intensify our interaction. There are plans to arrange the Days of Belarusian Culture in Azerbaijan, and similar events in Belarus. We hope that the pre-pandemic level of cooperation in tourism will be restored and people from Azerbaijan will come to visit Belarus, including its sanatoriums and health resorts. We run rehabilitation programs for COVID-19 survivors,” Igor Petrishenko noted.