Aleksandr Lukashenko meets with Iran Ambassador

Belarus is ready to expand investment and economic cooperation with Iran. President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement as he met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Iran to Belarus Seyyed Abdollah Hosseini on the occasion of the end of his diplomatic mission in Belarus.

The head of state underlined that he does not meet with every ambassador, who leaves the country after his or her diplomatic service in Belarus is over. Aleksandr Lukashenko said he meets only with friends. “I don’t conceal it and therefore I’d like to say that parting with friends is always sad. I hope that the Iranian leadership will find an ambassador as worthy as you are, so that we could advance relations with the Iranian state and the people”. Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that “we are extremely interested in taking our relations further along this way and adding something, I have strong hopes for it”.

Aleksandr Lukashenko asked to deliver his best wishes to the president and the spiritual leader of Iran.

“As far as our relations in politics are concerned, we have absolutely no problems. We have similar views on the world order and the way the world develops,” stressed the head of state. “We are active adherents of multipolarity, non-interference with internal affairs of other nations”.

The Belarus President stressed: “As far as economy is concerned, despite the huge problems that exist in the world today and despite the unprecedented economic and financial pressure on Iran, we still have comparatively good bilateral trade turnover. Although it has decreased a bit this year”.

The head of state also pointed out that some Belarusian-Iranian projects have been left unrealized. “Yes, one can say that due to abovementioned reasons in the global economy, due to pressure on Iran, it is the main cause why we have lost these projects. But still we could have done better than that. Please, tell the leadership of Iran that we count on the invigoration of this cooperation and are ready to accept investments of the Iranian business, the state in a manner profitable for Iran”.

The diplomat stressed that for the period of his work in Belarus serious steps had been taken to develop the Belarusian-Iranian relations. “Iranian investment to Belarus totaled nearly $6 million when I came here in September 2008. In December 2010 this figure exceeded $960 million in banking capital and investment,” the Ambassador underlined.

In his words, the trade between Belarus and Iran has soared three times over the last four years.

Over the period under review the bilateral cooperation has expanded from 10 to 75 areas in economy, science and culture.