Ambassador: India hopes for an exchange of high-level visits with Belarus

India hopes to exchange high-level visits with Belarus in late 2021 or early 2022, outgoing Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to Belarus Sangeeta Bahadur said as she met with Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko on 8 April, BelTA has learned.

The diplomat considers it important to intensify exchanges at the highest level, which have been temporarily suspended because of the pandemic. Ambassador Sangeeta Bahadur stressed the importance of Belarus-India friendly relations which the two countries have been maintaining since the Soviet Union times.

“Friends are never big or small, they are just friends,” she said, emphasizing the long-standing friendship between the peoples of the two countries.

“Belarus and India have good and close long-term relations. We maintained our ties after the collapse of the Soviet Union and were among the first foreign partners to open an embassy in Belarus,” emphasized Sangeeta Bahadur.

According to her, the two countries “continue to develop cooperation in all areas, first of all trade and economic contacts, political ties, and of course, the dialogue at international organizations.”

Sangeeta Bahadur touched upon additional incentives for the development of bilateral cooperation, naming communications between diplomatic departments, embassies of the two countries among them. “We have achieved a lot and, by the way, during my diplomatic mission we were able to significantly increase mutual trade, by about 50%. Of course, we should not stop there,” she said.

The ambassador believes that during the visits, which will take place once the epidemic situation stabilizes, it will be possible to strengthen bilateral mechanisms of interaction.

Sangeeta Bahadur has led India's diplomatic mission to Belarus since March 2018.