Snopkov: Lukashenko, Xi Jinping approve long-term cooperation guidelines

“It was a state visit, which is the highest level of diplomatic and political interaction between countries. Secondly, we had been looking forward to this visit. The coronavirus pandemic, the sanctions, rapidly developing external environment, aggressive moves by Western countries are changing the pattern of economic contacts. We had been looking forward to this visit for a simple reason: the president of Belarus is a friend of Xi Jinping. This was clearly demonstrated during the state visit. They are friends, which gave an appropriate impetus, an appropriate signal to the people in charge of fulfilling the tasks that had been set earlier and the tasks that were agreed on by the two leaders during this state visit. This is probably the most important thing,” Nikolai Snopkov said.

The first deputy prime minister added that government agencies signed a great number o practical agreements, contracts, memorandums. “In addition, more than a dozen specific contracts were signed between businesses. This is very important. It can be translated into numbers, it is appreciable. However, even more important are the agreements meant for the future. Secondly, in fact, the two leaders signed off on mechanisms, approaches, directions, principles that will lead the way for cooperation for decades to come. The leaders have showed the way. We are moving there, in this direction, we have once again reaffirmed our commitment to moving hand in hand - this is the third main outcome of the visit,” he noted. “Of course, there are some fears of being affected by the so-called secondary sanctions. At the same time, I think this visit dotted all the ‘i's. We are moving forward together with China based on a new level of cooperation - an all-weather strategic partnership,” Nikolai Snopkov added.