President Alexander Lukashenko and Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze, September 4, 2017. Photo: president.gov.by

Georgia’s Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze is on his official visit to Belarus, where he has already met with President Alexander Lukashenko and his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei.

At their meeting, the two Foreign Ministers discussed a broad range of bilateral political and economic cooperation issues, as well as implementation of agreements reached between the leaders of the two countries, the Foreign Ministry of Belarus reported.

President Alexander Lukashenko, who also met Janelidze on September 4, stressed that “the Georgians are our brothers.” “We do not have any issues that divide us: you really need us and we really need you. Our economies do not compete with each other,” Lukashenko noted. 

He also touched upon the participation of the Belarusian firefighting airplane in quelling the forest fire in Georgia, saying Minsk’s immediate reaction to Georgia’s request of assistance, “is a clear example that you can always count on your Belarusians.”

As part of the visit, Janelidze and Makei signed the Program of Cooperation between the Georgian and the Belarusian Foreign Ministries for 2018-2019. In Minsk, Minister Janelidze will also meet the speakers of upper and lower houses of the parliament, Mikhail Myasnikovich and Vladimir Andreichenko, respectively.

Georgia’s trade turnover with Belarus, according to the State Statistics Office Geostat, stood at USD 76.2 million in 2016, with exports at USD 18.3 million (USD 20.4 million in 2015) and imports at USD 57.9 million (USD 20.7 million in 2015).