Belarus - Austria: new phase of cooperation

The second day of the official visit of the President of Belarus to Vienna will be remembered for intense talks: negotiations in broad and narrow composition, meetings with officials and a business forum. At the same time, experts agree that a new page in Belarus' relations with the European Union begins with Austria. As for the bilateral relations between Minsk and Vienna, the last few years have been marked by a significant rise: about 500 Austrian companies cooperate with Belarusian enterprises, while the investment to our country is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars annually. 

Our peoples are also linked by the common tragic pages of history. Last year, President Van der Bellen came to Minsk to participate in the opening ceremony of the second stage of the Trostenets Memorial. He invited Alexander Lukashenko to visit Vienna. So, the official negotiations are not the beginning, but the continuation of the conversation considering the basis for the dialogue already in place. 

Belarus and Austria have been building cooperation on the basis of trust for many years. This is definitely a deficit in international politics today. We seem so different, but we're very similar. Austria has always advocated neutrality, it is a member of the European Union, but is not a member of NATO, and Belarus is a country that stands for peace like no one else today. 

The specificity of the Austrian protocol is that all negotiations take place behind closed doors. Only the first minutes of the meeting are in the focus of the cameras, and then the journalists wait for the leaders to come out and tell them what they have agreed to do. 

Alexander Van Der Belen, President of Austria: "We have talked about the issues of Eastern Ukraine, Belarus remains an important negotiating platform for the resolution of the conflict, the Minsk agreements are known all over the world - and Belarus has made its worthy contribution to the resolution of the conflict - Austria supports the efforts within the OSCE. We appreciate your interest in deepening our bilateral relations and would like to say that it is mutual."

The Presidents of Belarus and Austria answered the journalists' questions.