Belarus, Cuba seek to ramp up bilateral trade

On the first day of his official visit to Cuba on 17 July, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Sergei Aleinik met with President of the National Assembly of People's Power of Cuba Juan Esteban Lazo Hernandez, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment of Cuba Ricardo Cabrisas Ruíz and Acting Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The parties had substantive negotiations and discussed the entire spectrum of Belarus-Cuba relations and ways to intensify them, including through the joint commission on trade and economic cooperation. The agreement was reached to hold the next meeting of the commission in the second half of September this year. The agenda of the meeting was also agreed upon. One of key points of the talks was the supply of various types of Belarusian equipment and spare parts, in-demand foodstuffs and other Belarusian products to Cuba. In this context, the parties discussed plans to finalize a protocol to an agreement on mutual deliveries. This tool is expected to help increase bilateral trade in physical and monetary terms,” the press service informed.

High on the agenda was Belarus-Cuba cooperation and promising joint projects in science, biotechnology and pharmaceutics.

Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Amkodor Aleksandr Shakutin, MTZ Director General Vitaly Vovk, representatives of MAZ and the banking sector held talks in the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, as well as with Cuban counterparts and partners, representatives of small business. They considered the possibility to implement promising joint projects.