Mr Anatoly Rubinov had a meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Belarus

      On 3 July 2010 Mr Anatoly Rubinov, Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, had a meeting with Mr Roman Bezsmertnyi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Belarus, on his request. Ms Nina Mazay, Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic for Foreign Affairs and National Security, also took part in the meeting.

      The participants of the meeting discussed the development of Belarusian-Ukrainian political links, intensification of inter-parliamentary contacts and interaction in trade and economic sphere as well as in the area of science and technology.

      Mr Anatoly Rubinov noted the high level of the two countries’ political dialogue and underlined the importance of implementing the agreements, which had been reached between the presidents of Belarus and Ukraine and confirmed in the recently signed road map of bilateral cooperation. He noted that the significant potential of Belarusian-Ukrainian relations was witnessed by the 44 per cent growth of bilateral goods turnover during the first four months of the current year. The Belarusian Parliament contributes a lot to creating the legal framework for cooperation, in particular it has ratified a number of bilateral agreements. The Chairman of the Council of the Republic proposed to intensify the contacts between scientific communities of the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine and noted that it would be a prospective line of cooperation.

      The Ambassador of Ukraine said that cooperation between the parliaments of Belarus and Ukraine had broad prospects. He expressed the interest of the Ukrainian side in the work experience of the bicameral Belarusian parliament, and underlined the necessity of extending links between standing committees as well as within the framework of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation. Mr Roman Bezsmertnyi also noted that the two countries could effectively cooperate in the sphere of energy saving in view of the huge amount of alternative and renewable sources of energy in the Republic of Belarus.

      The participants of the meeting discussed other issues of mutual interest.