The two presidents will meet first tete-a-tete and then their countries’ delegations will join them. The sides are expected to discuss the implementation of projects in the areas of industry, agriculture, transport, and logistics.
This is Lukashenko’s third visit to Iran. His previous visit took place in 2006. The two presidents met in September 2022 in Samarkand, on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
During his stay in Tehran, Lukashenko will also meet with Iranian Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and a number of top-ranking government officials and senior lawmakers. Trade and economic cooperation is expected to top the agenda of Lukashenko’s talks, which are to yield a comprehensive roadmap of all-round cooperation between Minsk and Tehran.
A Belarusian government delegation arrived in Tehran on Saturday. Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergey Aleinik has already held talks with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Lukashenko said in late February that the situation in the world is pushing Belarus and Iran closer to each other to look for new formats of cooperation. He assessed bilateral trade as normal, saying however, that it could be "more voluminous."
In 2022, trade between the two countries exceeded 100 million US dollars, or nearly thee times as big as in 2021. Belarus’ exports to Iran increased by almost six times and reached more than 81 million US dollars. Belarusian exports to Iran included primarily potassium fertilizers, timber, synthetic yarn and imports from Iran - food products.
MNA/PR