The trade volume of the two countries will reach $2 billion this year.
Belarus is steadily increasing trade turnover with Kazakhstan. The bilateral trade volume of the two countries is about to increase to $2 billion this year. Enterprises of the Grodno region are also striving to increase supplies to a friendly country.
Partnership is based on mutual trust
According to Anton Dudarenok, Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Minsk and Nur-Sultan have a mutual interest in strengthening multi-faceted cooperation and the opportunity to develop relations on a mutually beneficial basis, enabling them to resist more effectively the negative effects of sanctions pressure from the collective West. The common desire to enhance the stress resistance of national economies creates extra opportunities for the development of Belarusian-Kazakhstan relations.
Three decades of cooperation between Belarus and Kazakhstan are strategic in nature and are based on mutual understanding, trust and friendship. Kazakhstan is one of the top ten of Belarus' main trading partners including among the EEU and CIS countries. The confirmation of productive interstate contacts is a large-scale contractual and legal framework – about 100 international agreements and documents in various areas. Last year, the mutual trade volume of the two countries exceeded a billion dollars. This year, the Belarusian-Kazakhstan Business Council meeting voiced the intention to increase this figure to $ 2 billion.
In addition to trade turnover, the Belarusian-Kazakh cooperation growth drivers are the increasing industrial cooperation and the implementation of joint projects. The successful partnership in mechanical engineering, establishing agro-industrial cooperation, the supply of Belarusian woodworking products, petrochemicals and other goods are facilitated by the existing distribution network of entities, which includes dozens of companies, dealerships, joint ventures.
Sociological research also confirm Belarus' focus on cooperation with Kazakhstan, which is positively perceived in the Belarusian society as one of the promising vectors of our country's foreign policy. The outcomes of the opinion poll initiated by the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research (December 2021) show that, apart from Russia, Kazakhstan is the most consistent with the interests of our country and is the most reliable partner in the international arena. More than 90 percent of respondents have a positive or neutral attitude towards Kazakhstan, more than 60 percent support cooperation with Kazakhstan within the framework of the EEU..
Speaking about prospects and priorities for further development of Belarusian-Kazakhstan relations, the analyst drew attention to the need to take into account the impact of modern challenges. In his opinion, in the conditions of growing global tension, we can talk about the existing need for the public administration of the two countries to respond flexibly and make decisions promptly, to reassess national development strategies taking into account the current international situation, to formulate key approaches based on which it is necessary to jointly respond to the challenges of the time. It seems that the only effective response to international turbulence is joint development. One of the points of contact and the growth driver is the intensification of interregional economic cooperation, the analyst stressed.
To China via Kazakhstan
Speaking about prospects of cooperation between the two countries, Anton Dudarenok noted that the sanctions policy of the collective West forces us to elaborate on new mechanisms of interaction and expand areas of cooperation.
Many experts note that in modern conditions the world is rapidly fragmenting and is on the verge of transformation of global logistics routes. In this regard, the search for new ways to increase the efficiency of interregional trade is largely determined by improving the connectivity of the vast Eurasian macro-region, including the development of transit and logistics potential. Belarus is ready to join the process of linking the commodity distribution systems of all Central Asian countries. This, in particular, is evidenced by the significant increase in applications of Belarusian shippers to China through the territory of Kazakhstan noted by the parties. The expansion of trade routes from China to Europe will be given the closest attention at the September summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan..
An additional driver of bilateral cooperation may also be the consolidation of the efforts of Kazakhstan and Belarus expert community which will contribute to the search for new directions for strengthening bilateral partnership and joint development within the Eurasian macroregion.
Only joint efforts can overcome global challenges, and Belarus-Kazakhstan relations have the necessary potential for such a response, the expert believes.
Read the full version on the Grodnenskaya Pravda (Grodno Truth) website