On April 14-17, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, made official visits to the Sultanate of Oman and India.

The visit of the president to Oman, which had the status of a state visit, became the first in the 15-year long history of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Today Oman is one of the leading and most authoritative countries of the region. Belarus is interested in the development of contacts with this state as Belarus desires to have a closer dialogue with the Persian Gulf countries.

Since the Sultanate has been pursuing more open policy towards its foreign economic partners lately, the market of Oman, as yet developed poorly, may be very promising for Belarus.

Besides, Oman possesses significant investment resources which Belarus is ready to utilise to pursue mutually beneficial projects. The bilateral cooperation in the sphere of education is promising.

Belarus and Oman have been fruitfully cooperating within the framework of the UN and other international organisations. The bulk of Omani exports consists of oil and oil products and liquefied gas. The supplies of hydro-carbon resources bring the country 75% of its export revenues.

The explored oil reserves in the Sultanate are relatively small (40-45 million tons of oil produced annually, which, experts say, will be exhausted in approximately 20 years), but the leadership of Oman gives preference to the gas industry: given the present-day efficiency of natural gas development, this resource will be exhausted in roughly 60 years. Obviously, the money Oman will earn on selling its hydro-carbon resources will be invested in lucrative investment projects abroad, like the neighbouring United Arab Emirates is doing.

On April 14, on his arrival to Muscat, Alexander Lukashenko had a brief meeting with sultan of Oman Qaboos Bin Said who holds all major posts in the country, namely that of prime minister, supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces, head of the Central Bank, foreign ministry, defence ministry and finance ministry.

It is noteworthy, that Oman accepts no more than two foreign delegations of such a level every year.

The president of Belarus and sultan Qaboos Bin Said mapped out the specific avenues they intend to move along to intensify the bilateral cooperation and exchanged opinions on urgent international issues.

The talks ran short of 30 minutes. On the night of April 14, an official dinner was given on behalf of the sultan of Oman in honour of the president of the Republic of Belarus, which, besides from the Omani and Belarusian officials, was attended by nearly all members of the diplomatic corps accredited in the country.

On April 15, the Belarusian leader had talks with the deputy primer of Oman, Sayyid Fahad bin Mahmood Al-Said. ‘I thank you for the invitation to visit the Sultanate to study opportunities for cooperation with Oman. And they are quite good,’ the president said.

Alexander Lukashenko has praised the scale and level of development of Oman which had gained impressive results in three and a half decades of its development.

Sayyid Fahad bin Mahmood Al-Said expressed hope, the visit of the president of Belarus to Oman would bring positive results.

On the same day, the president of Belarus held another round of talks with sultan of Oman Qaboos Bin Said in both extended and one-to-one formants.

Belarus and Oman have common interests in some spheres of cooperation, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said.

‘We are doing our utmost to worthily represent Belarus in Oman,’ Alexander Lukashenko said.

The trade and economic relations between Belarus and Oman should have solid legal framework, he said. ‘This is an important task which is being addressed now,’ the Belarusian leader added.

An exchange of visits by delegations of the two countries will help improve the bilateral trade and economic ties, the head of Belarus noted.

The sultan of Oman, on his part, has expressed interest in the development of cooperation with Belarus.

Within the framework of the visit, representatives of Belarusian ministries, agencies and companies, who accompanied the president, held bilateral negotiations with Omani colleagues.

The Belarus’ taxes and duties minister, Anna Deiko, signed an agreement on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion with regard to profit and capital taxes.

The Belarusian chamber of commerce and industry and the chamber of commerce and industry of the Sultanate of Oman have signed an agreement on cooperation. Vladimir Bobrov, the head of the Belarusian chamber of commerce and industry, signed the agreement representing the Belarusian party.

The Minsk mayor, Mikhail Pavlov, also held fruitful negotiations in Muscat with his Omani colleague. The Minsk administration is interested in signing an agreement on establishing ties between Minsk and Muscat, he said.

Minsk and Muscat have good prospects for the development of interaction in various spheres, above all in the sphere of economy, education and tourism.

Mikhail Pavlov invited his Omani counterpart to visit Minsk in time most convenient for him and the Omani colleague expressed interest in getting acquainted with the tourist potential of Belarus.

After Oman, Alexander Lukashenko went to India. Answering questions of reporters in New Delhi, the president of Belarus said India was not only a priority partner, but also a pride of the foreign policy of Belarus. Now ‘the time of India is coming’, he said. ‘Such a colossal state with such human resources, enormous economic potential cannot fail to be essential in the world. No issue in the world can be solved today without the participation of India,’ the Belarusian leader said.

‘The peculiarity of our relations with India is that they are based on scientific-technical cooperation. It is science, rather than trade, that is in the vanguard here,’ Alexander Lukashenko emphasized.

In the capital of India, Alexander Lukashenko held talks with president of the country Abdula Kalam; prime minister Manmohan Singh; vice-premier, chairman of the Council of States (the upper chamber of the Indian parliament) Bhairon Singh Shekhawat; foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee.

During the talks the sides discussed urgent issues of the bilateral relations. The leaderships of Belarus and India reaffirmed their commitment to intensifying trade and economic cooperation and enhancing the efficiency of sci-tech interaction. The president of India promised to give support to joint Belarusian-Indian projects.

The sides also touched upon urgent international issues. Alexander Lukashenko thanked the Indian side for its support in international organisations. On its part, Belarus will give analogous support to India in all spheres, the president of Belarus said.

India, along with China and Russia, is one of the important foreign political partners of Belarus, the president said. ‘We have an opportunity to rely on the potential of these states for ensuring our independence and sovereignty,’ he added.

The two presidents signed a joint declaration mapping out the avenues of further expansion of the Belarusian-Indian interaction.

The sides reaffirmed their commitment to the development of strategic partnership, the importance of new initiatives in the spheres of trade, economy, science, technology, investments, including the setting up of joint enterprises and industrial application of the products of scientific research.

The document also marks the completion of Belarusian-Indian negotiation on the Belarus’ accession to the World Trade Organisation.

On the night of April 16, an official dinner was organised on behalf on the president of India, Abdul Kalam, in honour of the president of Belarus.

In the course of the dinner Alexander Lukashenko said Belarus and India had bright cooperation prospects. The results of the Belarusian-Indian talks confirmed the high level of friendship, mutual understanding and trust between the two countries, he said.

The Belarusian side, the president said, attaches special importance to the strengthening of stable and mutually beneficial relations with India which is one of the priority trade and economic partners of Belarus in Asia.

Belarus and India have similar positions on the majority of issues of multilateral cooperation, Alexander Lukashenko said.

The president of Belarus endorsed the idea of the India’s president to push the bilateral trade to $0.5 billion by 2010.

Abdul Kalam emphasized that the visit of the head of Belarus to India coincided with the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the countries, which is marked on April 17.

‘India sees Belarus as a close friend. We recall with satisfaction the results of your previous visit to India in 1997 which gave a significant boost to the bilateral relations in various spheres. Undoubtedly the present visit on the highest level will contribute to the strengthening of various contacts between the two countries’, the president of India said addressing Alexander Lukashenko.

According to Mr. Abdul Kalam, there is a need to tap deeper into the potential of the two countries to intensify the trade-economic cooperation.

Alongside with the top-level talks, New Delhi also saw a business forum featuring representatives of Belarusian and Indian business circles.

Within the framework of the visit, the following five documents were signed: a treaty between Belarus and India on extradition, an agreement between the ministry of agriculture and foodstuffs of Belarus and agriculture ministry of India, a programme of cooperation between the government of Belarus and government of India in the spheres of culture, arts, education, mass media and press for 2007-2009, a protocol between Belarus and India on the accession of Belarus to the World Trade Organisation and the executive programme of the Belarusian-Indian cooperation in the sphere of science and technology for 2007-2010.

On April 17, the president of Belarus returned to Minsk.