The foreign policy of the Republic of Belarus is geared towards cultivating favourable external conditions for the development of the country and enhancement of the wellbeing of its citizens.

Promotion of Belarusian interests in the international arena largely hinges on the state of political relationships with foreign countries. This is why Belarus has chosen a multi-directional foreign policy, which is best for meeting the needs of the national development.

Today the Republic of Belarus maintains diplomatic relations with 154 states and in 46 of them it has 53 diplomatic missions. The missions include 44 embassies, 2 permanent missions to international organisations, 6 consulates general and one consulate. Moreover Belarus has 12 embassy branch offices abroad.

Foreign states are represented in Belarus by 35 embassies, one embassy branch office, one trade mission and 19 consular institutions (including honorary consulates); international organisations are represented by 12 missions. In Belarus there are 88 foreign diplomatic missions with concurrent accreditation to this country.

Currently Belarus is party to 2,787 international treaties. Of them 1,444 are bilateral treaties and 1,343 multilateral ones.

Russia is Belarus’ main partner in the region and in the world. The Russian Federation is the main trading partner of the Republic of Belarus. Building their relations on the basis of a union state, Belarus and Russia preserve their sovereignty and remain full-fledged subjects to international law.

The member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are another foreign policy priority of the Republic of Belarus.

Being an inseparable part of the European continent, the Republic of Belarus has been consistently materialising the idea of good-neighbourliness. The dialogue with the European Union is not smooth now. For several years now, the European Union has been pursuing a tough line on Belarus. This does not only hamper the development of bilateral relations, but also contradicts the long-term interests in consolidating the unity on the European continent.

Despite difficulties in political mutual relations with the European Union, the Republic of Belarus is striving to establish with it a very close interaction. A high level of cooperation with the European countries has been reached in the issues of transit, energy supplies, trade, ecology, in mitigating transborder threats and strengthening regional security. Positive trends have taken shape in our relationship with Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Sweden, and Finland; pragmatic cooperation has been growing with Germany and Italy in the fields of economy, science, culture, in humanitarian issues. Taken together, all these efforts provide additional motives for the development of trustworthy and constructive relations as is customary between good neighbours. The level of political dialogue between Belarus and the EU should measure up to the economic cooperation which is dynamically developing.