Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin yesterday met here with his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei, who arrived in Dushanbe for participation in a session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations that is being held in the Tajik capital today afternoon.

According to the Tajik MFA information department, the two discuss issues related to bilateral political and economic cooperation between Tajikistan and Belarus.

They reportedly also discussed the results of a session of the Tajik-Belarusian Joint Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation that took place in Dushanbe on April 5-7 this year.  

Murhriddin and Makei signed the plan of consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries designed for 2021-2022.  

Diplomatic relations between Tajikistan and Belarus were established on September 5, 1996. The Embassy of Tajikistan was opened in Minsk in 1997 and the Embassy of Belarus was opened in Dushanbe in 2011.

Tajikistan and Belarus maintain an active political dialogue and interact constructively at international venues. On May 14-16, 2018, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko paid an official visit to Tajikistan. During the visit, the parties confirmed the mutual desire for further constructive development of relations between the two countries, discussed promising spheres of bilateral cooperation, including trade and economy. On September 27-29, 2018 in the framework of the Meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State in Dushanbe, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko paid a working visit to Tajikistan.

On June 27-July 1, 2019 President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon paid an official visit to Belarus.  The Treaty on Strategic Cooperation between Tajikistan and Belarus was signed during the visit.  The Treaty came into force on June 18, 2020.

5Last year, a two-way trade between Tajikistan and Belarus valued at 111.7 million U.S. dollars.  This consisted of Tajikistan’s exports to Belarus estimated at US$2.1 million and Tajikistan’s imports from Belarus worth US$109.6 million.