Belarus President visits Turkey

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is now on an official visit to Turkey, BELTA reports referring to presidential press-service.

Mr Lukashenko will meet Turkey’s PM, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the country’s president, Abdullah Gül. Issues of bilateral relations and world politics are on the agenda. The Belarus president will also hold meetings with various official figures and businessmen.

The level of Turkish-Belarus political and economic relations is very high: a treaty on friendship and co-operation was signed in 1996 and is still active.

The two countries support each others candidates for initiatives in the framework of UN activities as well as other international organizations like the OSCE.

Turkey and Belarus also enjoy a high level of trading relations: the total sum of trade turnover reached 266.8 million dollars in 2009, and the figure for the period January-June 2010 is 197.7 million dollars. The investment policy of Turkey is also favorable to its partner: Turkey invested $9.7 million in the Belarus economy in 2009 and $5.6 million this year.