On April 14-17, the President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, was on official visits to the Sultanate of Oman and India.

The visit of the President of Belarus to Oman, which had the status of a state visit, was made for the first time in 15-year history of the diplomatic relations of both countries.

Belarus and Oman have been fruitfully cooperating within the UN and other international agencies. Oil, petrochemical goods, liquefied gas are the main export items in Oman’s foreign trade. Hydrocarbon raw materials account for 75 percent of the country’s export earnings.

On April 14, on arrival in Muscat, Alexander Lukashenko met with the Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said, who is the Head of State and holds the key posts of prime minister and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. He is also the head of the Central Bank, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, and the Ministry of Finance.

The President of Belarus and Sultan Qaboos bin Said identified the main avenues of interaction between both countries and exchanged views on international problems of current importance.

The talk of two leaders lasted for about half an hour. On April 14, in the evening, the Sultan of Oman hosted an official dinner in honour of the President of the Republic of Belarus. Besides the official delegations of Oman and Belarus, the dinner was attended by practically all the diplomatic corps accredited in that country.

On April 15, the Belarusian leader met in Muscat with the Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers of the Sultanate of Oman, Sayyid Fahad Bin Mahmood Al Said. The President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko expressed his conviction that Belarus and Oman have good prospects for interaction. “Thank you for the invitation to visit the Sultanate, to learn the potentialities for cooperation with Oman, and there are no small potentialities in this respect, ” the Head of State said.

Alexander Lukashenko gave a high assessment to the scope and level of economic development of Oman.

For his part, Sayyid Fahad Bin Mahmood Al Said expressed the hope that the visit of the President of Belarus to Oman would yield tangible positive results.

The same day the Head of the Belarusian State held another round of talks with the Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said.

Belarus and Oman have common interests in a number of cooperation areas said Alexander Lukashenko in the course of the talks.

“We do everything we can to worthily present Belarus in Oman,” he stressed. In his words, the trade and economic relations between Belarus and Oman should have a solid legal framework. “This is an important task, and it is being addressed now.”

The Head of the Belarusian State pointed out that the exchange of visits of the delegations of both countries would facilitate improvement of the trade and economic ties.

For his part, the Sultan of Oman expressed his interest in developing cooperation with Belarus.

Within the framework of the presidential visit to Oman, the officials of Belarusian ministries, agencies and enterprises, who accompanied the Head of State, held bilateral negotiations with their Omani colleagues.

After the visit to Oman, Alexander Lukashenko headed for India. In the Indian capital, Alexander Lukashenko had meetings with the President of India, Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Vice-President, the Chairman of the Council of States (Parliament’s Upper House), Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

During the talks, the parties exchanged their views on the important issues of bilateral interaction, with prioritarian attention focused on cooperation in the scientific and technological sphere.

The Presidents of both states adopted a joint declaration which identified the avenues of the further development of Belarusian-Indian interaction.

The parties reiterated their commitment to the development of strategic partnership, underscored the importance of new initiatives in the field of trade, economy, science and technology, investments, including the establishment of joint ventures and industrial application of technological innovations.

It was noted with satisfaction in the document that the bilateral Belarusian-Indian talks regarding the accession of Belarus to the World Trade Organization had been concluded successfully.

On April 16, the President of India, Abdul Kalam, hosted an official dinner in honour of the President of the Republic of Belarus.

The talks of the Belarusian delegation in New Delhi resulted in the signing of five documents: the Treaty between the Republic of Belarus and India on Extradition, the Agreement between the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Belarus and the Ministry of Agriculture of India on cooperation in agriculture, the Programme of Cooperation between the Government of Belarus and the Government of India in the field of culture, arts, education, mass media and publications for 2007-2009, the Protocol between Belarus and India regarding the accession of the Republic of Belarus to the World Trade Organization, the Executive Programme of the Belarusian-Indian cooperation in science and technology for 2007-2010.

On April 17, the Head of State concluded his official visits to the Sultanate of Oman and India and arrived in Minsk.