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Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Aleinik, arrived in Delhi on Monday night to hold meetings with prominent leaders and ministers and discuss India-Belarus bilateral ties.
The visit, scheduled from March 11 to 13, aims to strengthen the bilateral ties between Belarus and India. The highlight of the visit is a scheduled meeting between Sergei Aleinik and External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday. The bilateral discussions are set to take place on Tuesday afternoon. Minister Aleinik's departure is scheduled for Wednesday night, marking the conclusion of his brief yet pivotal diplomatic mission to India, the MEA added. EAM S Jaishankar last met his counterpart from Belarus in Kampala on January 19 on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit. During the meeting, Jaishankar and his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Aleinik spoke about developments related to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. India's relations with Belarus have been traditionally warm and cordial. India was one of the first countries to recognize Belarus as independent country in 1991, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). India and Belarus enjoy good understanding and commonality of views on various matters and cooperate with each other in multilateral fora on issues of mutual interest. Belarus has been supportive of India's candidature for a permanent seat at the UNSC. Belarus recognizes India as an emerging global power and seeks to develop a "strategic relationship" with India. India and Belarus have maintained high level contacts. India and Belarus maintain comprehensive partnership. Both countries have established mechanisms for exchanging views on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues through Foreign Office Consultations (FOCs), India-Belarus Inter-governmental Commission (IGC) on Cooperation in Science & Technology and Commission on Military Technical Cooperation. The two countries have signed a number of Agreements/MoUs on various subjects, namely, trade and economic cooperation, agriculture, cultural, educational, media and 3 sports, S&T, foreign office consultations, IGC, Avoidance of Double Taxation, Promotion and Protection of Investments and defence and technical cooperation. The Indian community in Belarus is minuscule with around 85 Indian nationals and 476 students, mostly studying medicine in Belarusian medical universities, the MEA also said. (ANI)
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