President of Belarus Leaves for Syria on 2-Day Official Visit

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has left for Syria on a 2-day official visit. On December 9 in Damascus the Belarusian leader will conduct negotiations with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.

The press-service of the head of state informed that the visit of the president to Damascus, which is the second in a row, aims to boost the bilateral relations with the new leaders of Syria and to coordinate the positions of the countries on the world political arena. The upcoming meetings will highlight on the prospects of increasing and expanding the nomenclature of Belarusian export, increasing the deliveries of Belarusian automobile equipment, outlining new lines of cooperation as well as on the issues of attracting Syrian investments.

Official Minsk considers Syria a promising trade-economic and foreign political partner of Belarus. Now practically the whole volume of mutual trade is formed by means of Belarusians export. It is based on deliveries of automobiles, fiberboards, tyres. The mutual goods turnover reached $9,87mln for January-September of the current year. In 2002 the bilateral trade constituted $14,8mln.