Georgia and Belarus sign cooperation agreements

Belarus and Georgia have signed a package of cooperation agreements during the Belarusian president’s current visit to Tbilisi.

Belarus President Aliaksandr Lukashenka and his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Margvelashvili confirmed their respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of internationally recognized borders in inter-state relations in a joint statement issued after the talks on Thursday, TASS informs.

The Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economy, Agriculture, Finance, Education and Public Health of Russia and Georgia singed cooperation agreements on Thursday. The Ministries of Justice, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Academies of Science signed memorandums of understanding. The Russian and Georgian Interior Ministries struck anti-crime deals; a readmission agreement and a protocol to implement the readmission agreement.

Margvelashvili and Lukashenka gave a joint news conference at which both presidents pledged to expand cooperation between the two countries. Lukashenka expressed the hope that his visit to Georgia "would create the basis for expansion and development of cooperation between the two countries." Bilateral export-import operations stood at 65 million dollars in 2014 what Lukashenka described as modest.

"Naturally, this figure cannot satisfy us. That is why during this visit we paid great attention to development of trade and economic cooperation between our two countries," Lukashenka stressed.

The Georgian president said, in turn, that Georgia’s deeper economic ties with the European Union and Belarus’s further integration with the Customs Union should not be a hindrance to relations between the two countries. "On the contrary, that should give a new impetus to the economies of Georgia and Belarus. We seek new unions and new opportunities rather than new barriers," Margvelashvili said in conclusion.