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Alyaksandr Lukashenka wants to have a cooperation roadmap with Sri Lanka. He stated this during a meeting with Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Vijitha Herath. At the same time, Lukashenka himself did not put forward any specific proposals. According to him, the foreign guest could personally review what might be of interest.
“I am glad to meet with you. We have much to discuss. We have long-standing relations and know each other well. But probably only thanks to one or two commodity groups, if we speak about the economy. We would like to expand our cooperation with you. I would like you, while in Belarus, with the help of the ambassador and our minister, after reviewing our capabilities, to determine how else we could be useful for Sri Lanka.
We would be very pleased to have relations with you and improve them. Including in the economic sphere, by forming a roadmap, a plan for our relations. The economy is the foundation of any relations. Therefore, we would like to build solid and good relations with you,” Lukashenka said, according to his press service.
According to him, the cooperation plan does not necessarily have to be extensive. Several points would be sufficient.
“A plan for our relations, even if it consists of three or four points — it does not matter. But we need to have it. So that we have certain goals that we will strive toward together with you,” he added.
“You may make use of everything we are rich in. After studying our capabilities, you may draw certain conclusions for yourselves regarding the direction in which to move,” he repeated, reiterating his highly vague proposal.
For his part, the Sri Lankan minister expressed hope that his visit would help advance the development of economic relations.
“As you rightly noted, our countries have been cooperating with each other for quite a long time — since 2000. We hope that during the current visit we will be able to further advance the development of our bilateral relations, including in the economic sphere,” Vijitha Herath said.
After the meeting with Lukashenka, Herath stated that Sri Lanka plans to supply precious stones to Belarus for further processing. In turn, the island nation is prepared to purchase agricultural machinery, fertilisers and engineering products.