Lukashenko pays visit to Iran

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko arrived on an official visit in Tehran on Sunday evening. He is scheduled to have talks with his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, on Monday.

The two presidents will meet first tete-a-tete and then their countries’ delegations will join them. They are expected to discuss the implementation of projects in the areas of industry, agriculture, transport, and logistics. Special attention will be focused on the situation in the region and in the world.

During his stay in Iran, Lukashenko will also meet with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of top-ranking government officials and senior lawmakers. Trade and economic cooperation is expected to top the agenda of Lukashenko’s talks, which are to yield a comprehensive roadmap of all-round cooperation between Minsk and Tehran.

A Belarusian government delegation arrived in Tehran on Saturday. Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergey Aleinik has already held talks with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Lukashenko said in February that the situation in the world is pushing Belarus and Iran closer to each other to look for new formats of cooperation. He assessed bilateral trade as normal, saying however, that it could be "more voluminous."

The two presidents last met in September 2022 in Samarkand, on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).