Today, the Russian city of Sochi has become the center of international politics. The President of Belarus, who is on a working visit there, met with the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran. They discussed the international situation and issues of cooperation with these states.
Earlier, Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani discussed issues relating to the situation in Syria at the tripartite summit. Official Moscow, Ankara and Tehran act as guarantors of the execution of Astana agreements. Two years ago, negotiations were initiated by three countries: Russia, Iran and Turkey, and the first meeting was held in the capital of Kazakhstan. At the Presidential level, such a summit is convened for the fourth time. The agenda of the meeting between Putin, Erdogan and Rouhani was known in advance. Among the key topics is the situation in Idlib (for the time being it is the largest region of the Arab Republic in which terrorist groups are still operating. They also discussed the formation of a constitutional committee to develop a new basic law of Syria.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey:
"We have made a big step forward to continue the political process in Syria and establish a truce there. We managed to preserve the principles of Astana, despite the provocations. This is the most successful process to stop the bloodshed. Through dialogue, we managed to overcome many barriers."
The Presidents spoke about what will happen after the Americans leave Syria. The states promised to withdraw the troops in the coming months, but as the Astana trio stated today, “there are no changes in the territory yet”. Vladimir Putin called international organizations to help Syrian refugees. By the way, in the last six months alone, more than 130 thousand Syrians have returned to their homeland.
If everyone is interested in refugees returning to their homes, then everything must be done so that their living conditions are decent, human.
With our general support, conditions have been created for accommodating a million and a half people. Everyone can return to their homeland.
And the situation in Syria is not easy. The local conflict has resulted in a protracted war, which lasts from 2011. This is a great test for the inhabitants of the country, hundreds of thousands of people died, 70 percent of the infrastructure was destroyed.
The Syrian summit participants invited the President of Belarus to join the informal part of the meeting. Official Minsk is no longer just a negotiation platform, but a full initiator of peace processes. Belarus helps not in words, but in deeds.
It is not the first year that Syrian children, who, despite their young age, have gone through difficult tests and know what the pain of war is, are welcomed in Belarus. More than once humanitarian cargo was sent from our country. And the experience of the Belarusian builders is quite useful in the restoration and development of the Syrian infrastructure: the construction of schools, hospitals and roads.
As for Turkey, trade with this country has been holding a positive trend for more than a year: 983 million dollars (close to a billion). At the same time, Belarusian exports grew by one third. Turkish companies are actively investing in our country: among such examples is the acquisition of 80% of the shares of our GSM operator by Turkcell, and Kamvol cooperates with the Turkish company in the production of textiles.
But in trade with Iran, the turnover figures are not so high. In the middle of 2018, at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Alexander Lukashenko and Hassan Rouhani identified the problems in Belarusian-Iranian relations. Both Minsk and Tehran are going to solve the difficulties.
Today, Iran is the fourth economy of the Islamic world and one of the most technologically advanced countries in the region: an industrial country with a powerful oil industry.
Tehran is interested in Eurasian integration. The Iranian parliament plans to ratify the agreement on a free trade zone with the EEC in the near future. And this will make it possible to increase trade by facilitating the customs regime.
Tomorrow, Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin will continue discussions on Belarusian-Russian cooperation.
