Meeting with Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Belarus Yermukhamet Yertysbayev

There are great prospects for the further development of bilateral cooperation with Kazakhstan, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with outgoing Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Belarus Yermukhamet Yertysbayev on 28 August.

“Our prospects and opportunities are even bigger than the results we have achieved. As ambassador, you realize that with such an advanced level of integrations we can hope for more than $1 billion worth of bilateral trade. We should have several billions. And we can do it,” the President said.

The President praised a high level of relations between Belarus and Kazakhstan. “The things you’ve been doing in recent years as an ambassador of a very friendly country produce excellent results. Belarus has very good relations with Kazakhstan. They can be only compared to Belarus’ relations with Russia. These two countries together with Belarus have always promoted the kindest relations between nations, especially after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. We have always initiated integration processes,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.

Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned very good relations between the two countries in the economy. “The economy is the foundation of all relations. Diplomacy and politics are useless without the economy. If the countries have trade and economic relations, they can also built political contacts. Belarus and Kazakhstan have nothing to complain about in this regard,” the President said.

“I believe that soon I will have an opportunity to visit Kazakhstan and we will discuss the whole range of our relations. We, together with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, agreed to revise our relations and work out a plan of action for the future (or, as it is often said today, a roadmap of our relations for the coming years). We will approve this roadmap in Nur-Sultan. But before, our intergovernmental commission will take a look at all the issues we have and make decisions on our further relations,” the President said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko expressed confidence that the recent elections in Kazakhstan and that complicated political period in general will do a power of good to the people of Kazakhstan. The head of state has stressed that he knows current Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev very well. “He is a decent and well-educated person. I respect him highly. We will have good relations with him, the same as Kazakhstan and Belarus will continue developing relations in the same vein,” the President said.

He asked the ambassador to convey the best wishes and greetings to the President of Kazakhstan. “I also ask you to convey my wishes of strong health to my long-standing friend, Nursultan Nazarbayev,” the Belarusian leader added.

As for Ermukhamet Ertysbayev, the President is confident that he will always be a friend of Belarus. “This is your Belarus, your country that you have known for a very long time, from the Soviet period. You have lived and worked here for many years,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko added: “When I was preparing for this meeting, I discovered that we are both historians by training.”