Meeting with Venezuela’s Vice President - Minister of Planning Ricardo Menendez

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Venezuela’s Vice President - Minister of Planning Ricardo Menendez in Minsk on 28 November.

“I am pleased to meet with you. We have known each other for a long time, and you know Belarus well,” the Belarusian leader said at the beginning of the meeting. “We started from scratch during the life of our mutual friend Hugo Chavez. We have done a lot, but it was not our fault, I mean the fault of Belarus and Venezuela, that there was a certain pause. We kept these relations, but they were not so intensive.”

The head of state added that the two countries kept the areas defined earlier and now they need to give a new impetus to them.

The President suggested revising all joint projects, eliminating everything irrelevant and adding new areas and sectors of cooperation if necessary, and thus updating the roadmap the countries have defined earlier.

"Over the years, the world has undergone significant changes. One of the most important events was your fight for sovereignty and Independence. You did a great job, you defended the country," the head of state said. "You stood your ground and prevailed." Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that today Venezuela enjoys the greatest respect across the world for its courage and steadfastness in defending sovereignty and independence.

For his part, Ricardo Menendez thanked for the opportunity to meet and conveyed Aleksandr Lukashenko warm greetings and words of admiration for the Belarusian people from Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro. "We love and admire Belarus very much. In his time, Hugo Chavez taught us to love and admire Belarus and its people. It is not only about the historical heroic past of your country, but also about your vision of the future," the vice President said. "As President Maduro noted, both Belarus and Venezuela are the architects of a new world, promoting a policy of peace where there is no place for sanctions or aggression."

Ricardo Menendez also conveyed Nicolas Maduro's proposal to organize a meeting with the Belarusian head of state to discuss the current agenda and prospects for further cooperation.