Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus O.Kravchenko visits Germany

14 June 2017

14-06-2017

On June 13-14, 2017 the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Oleg Kravchenko, visited Federal Republic of Germany.

At the invitation of the German side, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus participated in the 8th Annual Forum “European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region”.

In his statement at the the special seminar of the Forum dedicated to the cooperation of the Republic of Belarus with the European Union and the EU member states in the Baltic region, O.Kravchenko underlined the contribution of Belarus to strengthening the security, stability and prosperity of the region.

The Deputy Minister emphasized the importance of the expansion of diverse, inclusive regional cooperation with the involvement of all interested states. As priority areas of such interaction, O.Kravchenko named interconnectedness, environmental protection and education. The Deputy Foreign Minister noted that a number of priorities of the EU Baltic Strategy coincide with the priorities of the Presidency of the Republic of Belarus of the Central European Initiative in 2017.

Certain aspects of Belarus' cooperation with the Baltic region countries, particularly the collaboration in the environmental and educational spheres, were also presented to the participants of the seminar by experts from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection and the Belarusian State University. Within the framework of the Forum, a national stand of the Republic of Belarus was organized to present business and tourist potential of the country.

During his visit to Berlin, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus also held a number of bilateral meetings.

At the meeting with the Deputy Director General of the Department of Foreign, Security and Development Policy, Joachim Bertele, the Director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia at the Federal Foreign Office, Andreas Peschke, and the Director for Relations with the EU-Member States of the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, Thomas Ossowski, the sides disccussed prospcets for bilateral cooperation, dialogue between Belarus and the EU, regional issues.

During the meeting with the Сo-Сhair of the Belarusian-German non-governmental Council of Business Cooperation, Felix Zimmermann, the parties discussed the possibilities of promotion of trade, economic and investment cooperation between Belarus and Germany.

The current security situation in the European region was considered at the meeting with the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany, Ralf Brauksiepe.

Within the framework of the meeting with the President of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Hans-Gert Pöttering, the parties discussed international relations in Europe.

O.Kravchenko also exchanged views on a wide range of topical foreign policy issues with leading experts on the Eastern Europe region of the German Foreign Policy Society and the German Institute for International Policy and Security of the Science and Politics Foundation. The parties reached an agreement to establish contacts between think-tanks of the two countries.