Mr Boris Batura had a meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China

       On 14 January 2009 Mr Boris Batura, Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, had a meeting with Mr Lu Guisheng, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Belarus, on his request. Ms Nina Mazay, Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus for Foreign Affairs and National Security, also took part in the meeting.

       The participants of the meeting discussed the development of political contacts between Belarus and China, inter-parliamentary relations and cooperation in economic and humanitarian spheres. The Chairman of the Council of the Republic congratulated the Ambassador of the PRC with the approaching 17^th anniversary of establishing diplomatic links between the Republic of Belarus and the People’s Republic of China. He underlined the high level of mutual understanding between the heads of the states creating the background for effective Belarusian-Chinese trade and economic cooperation. There are expectations that the bilateral goods turnover volume for 2008 may reach USD 2 billion. Many members of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus are heads of enterprises, and the Council is ready to assist the development of Belarusian-Chinese economic links. Mr Boris Batura highly appraised the inter-parliamentary contacts of the two countries. He noted that a working group on cooperation with the National People’s Congress of China was going to be formed in the Belarusian Parliament in the nearest time. The Chairman of the Council of the Republic expressed gratitude to the People of China for their help during the mitigation of the aftermath of the Chernobyl Atomic Power Plant disaster.

       The Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in his turn thanked the Belarusian side for the support in the international arena. He underlined that the Government of the PRC attached significant importance to the development of Belarusian-Chinese interaction in all fields and assured that he would exert every effort to intensify it.

       At the end of the meeting the Chairman of the Council of the Republic proposed to consider the possibility of extending the regional level relations between Belarus and China, which excited great interest of the Chinese side.

 Actual