State visit to People’s Republic of China

Belarus and China have reached a new level of interstate relations. This is the result of the official negotiations of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko with China President Xi Jinping in Beijing on 29 September.

“Indeed, we have made serious progress in our cooperation. On behalf of the Belarusian people and the Belarusian state I would like to thank you for this contribution to our relations. Without this personal contribution it would be impossible to advance our relations to the existing level,” the Belarusian President said at the extended negotiations with Xi Jinping.

“After your visit to Belarus in May 2015 we have done a lot to promote your initiatives. First if all, these include the Silk Road Economic Belt, the Chinese-BelarusianIndustrial Park project which you called the pearl of the Silk Road. Yes, it is a crucial link for the advancement of regional, credit and investment cooperation between our countries,” the Belarusian leader said.

After the official negotiations the heads of state had a rather long one-on-one meeting. BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian leader that during the talks the sides praised an exceptionally high level of relations between Belarus and China. However, it was mentioned that the countries still need to do a lot.

Aleksandr Lukashenko and Xi Jinping also discussed the importance of developing interregional cooperation, the potential of which should be utilized in full. Solid regional ties help promote interstate relations. The talks also focused on humanitarian and tourism cooperation. The sides deemed it necessary to turn the Silk Road into the road with a more intensive traffic, enhance mutual support.

“We have moved the bilateral relations and multilateral cooperation to an accelerated development track. China and Belarus are genuine friends and most sincere partners. Thanks to joint efforts Chinese-Belarusian relations are dynamically developing and are rising to a new level. Mutual trust grows stronger as well as practical cooperation across the board,” Xi Jinping said.

After the negotiations the presidents signed a joint declaration of Belarus and China on the establishment of trust-based all-round strategic mutually beneficial partnership.

The sides set out to continuously advance mutual political trust and cooperation in various areas, step up contacts between the nations and humanitarian exchange programs, enrich the comprehensive strategic partnership component of Belarusian-Chinese relations, promote friendship ‘in any weather’. Special attention in the declaration was paid to the economic cooperation, joint promotion of the Silk Road Economic Belt project.

About 30 agreements and memorandums on the development of all-round cooperation, including in the manufacturing sector and investments, finance, trade, education, science, and tourism.

Aleksandr Lukashenko honored China President Xi Jinping with the Order for Strengthening Peace and Friendship in recognition of a big contribution to the development of trade, economic, scientific, technological, and humanitarian ties between Belarus and China, significant achievements in the enhancement of friendly relations between the two states. This award is a new one and was presented for the first time.

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko also met with Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress Zhang Dejiang and Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Yu Zhengsheng in Beijing on 29 September. These meetings highlighted the high level of Belarus-China cooperation, the importance of developing mutually beneficial ties. “We have been building these relations for a long time and have reached mutual trust,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “Belarus values it, and you must believe that you have a platform for the promotion of your interests in the center of Europe. You can count on us. We will do our best to help you promote your interest in the European continent.”

The Republic of Belarus is one of China’s closest friends and partners, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said during his state visit to the People’s Republic of China on 30 September.

The Belarus President visited the PekingUniversity where he met with representatives of the university administration and students. Aleksandr Lukashenko answered their questions.

The head of state noted that the diplomatic relations between Belarus and China were established almost 25 years ago. “We can proudly say that over so a short period of time in comparison with other states out relations have gained a trustworthy status of comprehensive strategic partnership and mutually beneficial cooperation. China maintains such high-level cooperation with only four countries, and Belarus is among them. We are proud of this fact,” the President stressed.

Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that Belarus is happy to build and develop its relations with China, despite the huge geographical distance. “First of all, it is because you have never laid down any conditions over these 25 years. You have always been honest and fair in building equal relations. This brings its results,” he said.

The most important factor, according to the Belarusian leader, is China’s head of state, Xi Jinping, with whom Belarus was able to reach the current high level of relations over a relatively short period of time.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that he first met with Xi Jinping when the then Vice President of China was on a visit to Belarus. “We spent five hours discussing various issues. The talks were absolutely frank. Chinese people are reserved. They can take long to decide, but once they decide they do it. The same is true with Xi Jinping. I see that after taking the post of the President he still remembers that conversation in full. When he became the President of China, it was easier for me to build further relations with him, as we have already knew each other very well,” the President said.

In his speech Aleksandr Lukashenko praised the importance of developing all-round mutually beneficial Belarusian-Chinese cooperation. The sides have already made serious progress in a number of fields. The President described the industrial park as an example of investment cooperation. “During the negotiations with the Premier of the State Council of China and with Xi Jinping we agreed that the Great Stone industrial park in Belarus should also become an example for the sake of demonstrating to the entire world and primarily high-tech Europe what China is today,” the Belarusian leader said. “We should build a showpiece technological complex so that other European countries would decide to cooperate with China after seeing it. The project will be implemented whatever the cost.”

“There is tough competition going on in the world, primarily in economic matters. China has chosen the right way by going ahead with the Silk Road project. The countries the Silk Road will cross are becoming China’s friends,” Aleksandr Lukashenko is convinced. Belarus supports the idea of connecting integration efforts in the Eurasian Economic Union with the development of the Silk Road Economic Belt project. The President also spoke in favor of the integration of integrations in the entire Eurasian space, including with the participation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the European Union.

The President said that China is one of the pillars of the multi-polar and stable world. “Only the multi-polar world can keep our planet stable and save it from destruction. No system can rely on only one pillar for a long time. The more pillars the system has, the stronger it will be. The People’s Republic of China is one of the pillars of the multi-polar and stable world. And we are interested in the strengthening of this pillar. This is the essence of our pragmatism,” the President said. “If there is strong and prosperous China, there will be sovereign and independent Belarus. Because China is our friend who will always lend a shoulder to us.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that Belarus has a multi-vector foreign policy. “We always keep this in mind when developing and pursuing our foreign policy. Therefore, we are focused on the enhancement and expansion of cooperation with all neighbors in the East and in the West. We are trying to advance this cooperation as much as possible without doing harm to anyone. We maintain dialogue with the partners who are prepared to build equal-based relations with Belarus without intrusion and coercion,” the head of state said.

“Without aspiring to achieve global geopolitical ambitions we have managed to create an island of stability in our region by enabling friendly and rather trustful relations with all the neighbors: Russia, the European Union, and Ukraine,” the President stressed.

“At the UN summit I said that the main reason behind all the crises is in the artificial and disproportional cultivation of individual human rights and freedoms at the expense of public interests. The human rights protection slogan is used as a cover to overthrow governments, destroy states, organize military intervention. In fact, chaos and anarchy are planted and result in numerous human losses. Improper means are unacceptable, even for a good cause,” the President said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that “color revolutions” in various countries did not bring them peace and wellbeing. On the contrary, they resulted in permanent instability, unbalanced state mechanisms, loss of control and declining living standards.

Aleksandr Lukashenko answered the questions of students about the prospects of Belarus-China cooperation in education, youth exchange programs, visa facilitation. One of the students asked the President about the break-up of the Soviet Union. “I view the collapse of the Soviet Union as a disaster that entailed and still brings about negative consequences around the world. We got nothing good from this break-up,” the President said.

The head of state said that it is needed to enhance Belarus-China cooperation in various fields.

The head of state also held talks with Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang.

The Belarusian head of state noted that his familiarization with the country started before he was elected President. Aleksandr Lukashenko said that when he was an MP he suggested using the Chinese experience in developing Belarus without destroying the existing system and state structure of the country. “Then, however, we had too many liberals who decided to choose the western part of development,” the Belarusian leader noted.

In turn, Li Keqiang expressed confidence that Aleksandr Lukashenko’s state visit would give an additional powerful impetus to the further development of the Chinese-Belarusian relations.

Before leaving Beijing Aleksandr Lukashenko laid a wreath at the Monument to the People's Heroes.