All-Weather Partnership: Belarus and China Double Exports and Expand Investment

An all-weather, comprehensive strategic partnership forms the core of the Belarus-China relationship. Maintaining such ties with Beijing means more than simply securing a firm position in Asia — it means having a reliable partner with clear long-term prospects. The benefit is mutual. In 2026 the two countries have stepped into a new five-year period of relations after closing 2025 with record figures.

Merchandise trade grew by more than 5.5 percent, reaching roughly $8.8 billion.

Looking further back, over the past ten years trade turnover has tripled and exports of goods have doubled. Direct Chinese investment has also doubled. In 2015 China ranked fifth among sources of gross investment; last year it rose to second place.

Today more than 60 investment projects involving Chinese capital and technology are being implemented in Belarus, with a total value exceeding $1.5 billion. Half a hundred of those projects are developing on the basis of the Great Stone industrial park.

This year and next the emphasis is on industrial cooperation. A new mechanism — the Belarus-China Commission on Industrial Cooperation — will coordinate large-scale projects and remove barriers. Industrial trade itself doubled in 2025. Fresh impetus came from the first-ever Forum of Regions of Belarus and China.

Around 40 bilateral documents and contracts were signed, along with 15 investment agreements whose figures run into the billions.

The number of sister provinces, regions, and cities between the two countries has risen to 53 pairs. Two such forums are already planned for next year. This direct dialogue and personal contact will give additional momentum to the implementation of the Directive on the Development of Belarus-China Partnership.

The document translates strategy into concrete sectoral tasks: industrial and technological cooperation, trade, investment and innovation, energy, transport, and logistics — areas in which Belarus is already actively working with Chinese partners within the Belt and Road Initiative.

Alexey Maslov, professor and director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University, observed: “Belarus has historically developed very good relations both with China as a country and at the level of the two leaders. Sympathy and mutual respect between the leaders are clearly visible. In Asia, in the East, that personal interaction is worth a great deal. Interestingly, over almost 40 years of developing relations between Belarus and China there has never been any step backward or sideways — the relationship has always moved along an upward trajectory. That is a great rarity. If one compares China’s relations with the United States or with Europe, there are ups and downs; only a few countries have methodically developed their ties.”

The formula for success lies in a shared view of the global situation. Strong personal relations between the leaders and regular high-level contacts form the foundation. When that foundation exists, an all-weather, comprehensive partnership becomes the most reliable shield against any geopolitical fluctuations on world markets. Approaches to the development of the SCO also coincide: strengthening political trust, collective security, and humanitarian exchanges.

Projects that directly improve people’s quality of life have also increased noticeably. On the medical side alone, China has recently offered its SCO partners two humanitarian tracks: ophthalmology (Belarusian and Chinese doctors have jointly operated on Belarusian patients) and the newly launched “Kind Heart Journey” project under the China-SCO initiative, which plans 500 operations to treat congenital heart defects over the next five years.

The China-Belarus Center for Humanitarian Exchanges further promotes youth dialogue. Children from China holiday at Belarus’s Zubrenok camp, while Beijing helps train a new generation of scientists for Belarus. These are only the most visible results — and the harvest continues to grow at an impressive pace.