Transcript of the Press Conference of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Mr. Vladimir Makei during the Official Visit to Nigeria (September 9, 2014, Abuja)

Makei: Good evening, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, friends.

Today Belarus is building a balanced and multi-directed foreign policy that would see close relations with partners all over the world. The need for access to global markets in order to ensure a manufacturing export-oriented economy is central to our foreign policy. Dialogue, equal partnership and non-discrimination are at the heart of our foreign policy.

Belarus is proud to have profound partnership with Russia, emerging powers of China and India and other important nations such as Venezuela, Egypt, South Africa and also Nigeria.

Now Belarus is planning to strengthen and expand the far edge of the foreign-policy allies and partners in Africa. Nigeria being one of the leading African economies is our natural gate to the whole region of West Africa. Since February 2011 the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus has been established in Abuja. Our major goal is to intensify political and economic cooperation and bring it up to the level of the strategic partnership. In this connection “economic diplomacy” is becoming more and more important.

Cooperation in agriculture, mechanical engineering, petrochemical, food and light industry; export of Belarusian quarry and road-building equipment; set-up of assembly lines to produce industrial goods; lease-based export of agricultural equipment; military cooperation; public transport; regional cooperation and collaboration between the chambers of commerce and industry are to be given priority attention.  

A promising avenue for cooperation with Nigeria is the sphere of investment. We are interested in joint science-intensive projects. Practical scientific developments in chemistry, information and laser technologies, genetic engineering, animal breeding, equipment of increased reliability and durability, powder metallurgy are of particular interest. There is a considerable progress in cooperation with foreign partners in the named areas.

Belarus traditionally cooperates with its partners in the sphere of education. Hundreds of future specialists from Africa annually graduate from Belarusian universities. Educational, scientific and technological cooperation tends to expand and we are looking towards Nigerian students.

Promising projects also include collaboration in the spheres of tourism and culture, enhancement of inter-parliamentary, inter-municipal and inter-regional ties that generate open and cooperative relations.

The potential and prospects of mutually beneficial cooperation are immense. Belarus is optimistic about its future multifaceted relations with Nigeria.

While building up mutually advantageous cooperation Belarus strictly sticks to the principle of unconditional preservation of national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the parties, accurate and responsible performance of international duties.

Unfortunately, Nigeria is among the countries that witness terrorism in daily life. We believe that terrorism treated as the deliberate creation and exploitation of fear for bringing about political change is one of the biggest problems a country can ever face. We do support the intentions of the Government of Nigeria to restore peace and harmony within the country. A lot has been done and even more is still coming in this respect.

We do believe that the Government of Nigeria has all the necessary potential and means to cope with this problem. In this respect, we are ready to provide all possible cooperation, and we are already seeing to it trying to activate the bilateral cooperation between the interior, military and police forces of both countries.

As I have already said, we are quite optimistic about the future. We treat Nigeria as the future base for Belarusian presence in the West African region and do hope that Nigeria in its turn will use the geopolitical advantages of Belarus.

This is the first visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus to Nigeria. We analyzed the situation in different countries, on different continents and we consider Nigeria as a very important and promising partner for Belarus in this region, due to the role which Nigeria plays here.

During my meeting with my colleague His Excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, with some other officials of Nigeria, with His Excellency the President of Nigeria we discussed the current stand and prospects of cooperation between Belarus and Nigeria. Really, these prospects are promising.

Our economies are complementary. You have goods which Belarus needs, and we have products which can be delivered to Nigeria and in which Nigeria has the interest.  That’s why we discussed these issues and we agreed that there are a lot of common mutually beneficial projects which can be implemented in different spheres. There are no closed issues for our cooperation. We are ready to cooperate in all the spheres which I have mentioned already, including the sensitive spheres, because we think that it will be really beneficial for the people of both countries.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Diplomatic magazine: Nigeria is among the five countries where you have your embassies in Africa. What steps are you taking to further build the cooperation between Nigeria and Belarus?

Makei: So, you are asking how we are trying to develop our future cooperation? You know, it wasn’t an occasional decision to open an Embassy here in Abuja, because we analyzed the situation, we know perfectly [well] that Nigeria is a very fast developing country and today Nigeria is the Economy No 1 in Africa.

So, as I already mentioned, our economies are mutually beneficial. We have a well-developed industry. We produce tractors, lorries, trucks, mining lorries, we produce agricultural equipment, we are quite experienced in the high-technology sector. So, there are a lot of products which we produce and which Nigeria needs.

At the same time you have a lot of goods and products which Belarus needs. We are not a rich country – I mean regarding the mineral resources – we do not have oil, gas and so on, but we have very good developed industry. So, there is a real opportunity to combine our efforts in order to achieve concrete mutually beneficial results. That’s why we discussed these issues with my Nigerian colleagues. We discussed the issues of cooperation in different fields, in the field of agriculture.

We are going to export tractors to Nigeria, to export trucks from Minsk Automobile Plant, but at the same time we know about the programme of your Government, which is called “transformation agenda”, I think. You are going to develop your own industry, and we are ready to transfer the technology to your country, we are ready to create here a joint assembly plant, which will produce tractors and which Nigeria needs. You know, when we met today with the business circles, with your business people, it was mentioned that you have 70 million hectares of agricultural land and you need machines that will work on this land. So we are ready to help you, create here the joint assembly plant. You will be the direct participants of this joint venture. I think it is beneficial for Nigeria and for the people of Nigeria. At the same time we perfectly understand that if we produce these machines in Nigeria in the future they could be sold not only on the Nigerian market, but also in the whole region. So, this is one direction.

Education is another one very important issue. Today – it was mentioned by your Minister of Foreign Affairs – approximately 1.000 of Nigerian people are in Belarus, and many of them study at our universities. We provide education in English which is very important for the people. You know in the former Soviet Union the people who came from Africa or from other continents they were forced to study the Russian language first of all and then study at the universities. Today we provide for instance medical education in English and there are a lot of students. I think, the number of Nigerians is the largest one if you compare with other African countries and even with the countries from other continents. Altogether more than 20.000 foreign students study in Belarus. And the number of Nigerians is very huge. So, this is the second direction of our cooperation.

In the field of health care we spoke today about this disease Ebola and other diseases. And we are ready to provide pharmaceuticals or create joint ventures which will produce pharmaceuticals and so on and so on. Of course, our experts have to sit down and discuss the possibility of cooperation in the field of health care. There are a lot of other fields and concrete projects which have been discussed during my visit, including the sensitive spheres, I mean, military and technical cooperation.

We are not a big country and we can not force somebody to have the cooperation with Belarus. We want to be a reliable partner to all countries, including Nigeria. And if we are a reliable partner, so if the Nigerian people understand that, I think, we will achieve concrete results and goals.

Question: Belarus is a small country and you have very interesting proposals. But how do you intend to achieve your aims if you are not well represented? Not a lot of Nigerians go to Belarus, even journalists. When we say “Belarus” they think it is maybe the capital of Russia or Ukraine. People do not know were you are, they don’t know what you are doing. How do you want to achieve your goal? And don’t you think you are a little bit slow, people say that you are slow in your approaches to business. Nigerian businessmen don’t really have so much patience.

Makei: Of course, Belarus may not be compared with China or with Russia and so on. We are a small country. But, you know, even small countries have its own advantages. And the aim of my visit – by the way it is really the first visit to any African countries in my capacity as a foreign minister – the aim was to get acquainted with the situation here, discuss the current stand of the trade, economic and other cooperation between our countries and discuss the future prospects of cooperation: how to expand and deepen this cooperation.

And I must agree with you that sometimes some people from Belarus and also from Nigeria are too slow. Maybe it depends on mentality or maybe it depends on the mass-media which describe the situation here as a terrible one and so on. I think, the reason is the lack of information, and the lack of experience regarding the bilateral cooperation. That’s why we have to overcome this obstacle and we discussed these issues. We have to meet more often at different levels, we have to organize a meeting between the business people, also between state bodies, between different ministries and so on. And we’ve achieved concrete agreements at this point and, I think, very important are the contacts at the highest level. We discussed also the possibility of the meeting of our presidents. I think, the meeting between the heads of the states are always very important because they always give new impetus to the cooperation in this field. That’s why I think we also have to organize maybe the visits of journalists of both countries to each country, because it will allow journalists via newspapers or via mass-media to help people of both countries understand each other.

I must admit that the process of cooperation of the two countries today is developing not very fast, but we have a clear understanding of both parties, that we have to give new dynamics to this cooperation. And how to do it I’ve mentioned already on some examples. Thank you.

African TV: You have mentioned the tractor assembly plant in Nigeria. Is it owned fully by Belarus or also by Nigerian partners? How many tractors are going to be produced here, what is the capacity, when will it be ready to start production?

Makei: It’s a joint venture. I can’t say about the capacity, all the necessary formal documents have been signed already. And at the end of this year we hope that this assembly plant will start its work and we will pay great attention to this project. Because we think it is very important not for Belarus, but first of all for Nigeria.

Regarding the capacity, volume of the projects I think if necessary we can expand the capacity of the joint assembly plant. It depends on concrete agreements between Minsk Tractors Plant and our Nigerian partners. But we are ready to provide all the necessary assistance to you in this field. Thank you.

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