Belarus suggests filling gaps in the economic cooperation with Mongolia and taking it to a new, higher level, Belarus’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said at a meeting with Mongolia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs D.Tsogtbaatar in the capital, Minsk, on 4 June.

The Belarusian minister of foreign affairs stressed that in Soviet times Mongolia was viewed as one of Belarus’ friendliest foreign partners. “I am happy that relations between our countries have been vibrant in recent years,” Vladimir Makei said.

Not long ago,  Belarusian-Mongolian cooperation was underestimated, with trade between the two countries being low. “We need to take a closer look at the full range of bilateral cooperation, the potential of which is still largely untapped. There are new areas where we can achieve maximum results,” Belarusia’s top diplomat said.

Vladimir Makei emphasised the importance of the political dialogue which the parties are currently restoring. The visit of D.Tsogtbaatar is the first visit of a Mongolian minister of foreign affairs to Minsk in the past 17 years. Vladimir Makei expressed confidence that this visit would become a milestone in bilateral relations and give a new impetus to Belarusian-Mongolian cooperation. Vladimir Makei said after the talks that Belarus and Mongolia agreed to decide on an exchange of visits at state level.

Foreign Minister Tsogtbaatar stressed that opening the embassy of Mongolia in Minsk is not a distant prospect, but will happen either this year, and definitely no later than next. “We intend to make provision for the amount needed to open the embassy of Mongolia in Belarus in next year’s budget’, he said.

During his visit, D.Tsogtbaatar also met with Belarusian Prime Minister Andrei Kobyatov and discussed more specific details of economic cooperation.

“Given the attention that the governments of our countries attach to agriculture, cooperation in crop production, animal husbandry, and veterinary medicine holds great promise. Currently, we are studying the possibility of implementing a comprehensive project to set up Mongolia’s first dairy cluster, Andrei Kobyakov said. The Belarusian side is also ready to share modern storage, processing and agricultural production technologies. Moreover, Belarus would like to increase supplies of farm machines and special-purpose equipment, and also passenger buses, utility vehicles, equipment and technologies to Mongolia. The prime minister suggested industrial cooperation projects. The Belarusian side is ready to set up joint ventures with Mongolian partners to produce machinery engineering goods.