Lukashenko to Myanmar Leader: “Your 50 Million People Are Our Concern”
Tight deadlines for turning joint projects with Myanmar into reality on the ground were the focus of today’s talks at the Palace of Independence.
Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing has arrived in Belarus on an official visit. Over the past couple of years the two countries have built an active political dialogue with the 50-million-strong state in Southeast Asia. Today they are ready to convert that dialogue into concrete economic projects.
Minsk is taking another confident step toward closer ties with Naypyidaw.
As Alexander Lukashenko emphasized, Belarus counts on further strengthening of relations and on the very rapid implementation of projects across different sectors. Full details follow.
This official visit by Min Aung Hlaing is his fourth to Belarus and the first in the capacity of head of state. Throughout this political track the Belarusian leader has supported Hlaing — largely to help maintain stability in the region. For one of the largest countries in Southeast Asia, Minsk is no longer such a distant light.
The official protocol of the visit is calculated to the minute: first the guests’ anthem, then the Belarusian one; a company of the honor guard as a sign of special respect; the red carpet; and the obligatory handshake with members of the “cabinet” on both sides — the people who will actually be responsible for implementing what the leaders agree upon.
Pharmaceuticals, industry, machine-building, agriculture — Myanmar was immediately interested in Belarusian products, tractors, and medicines. The 50-million-strong state was a British colony for a long time; the colonialists valued it for its natural riches — oil, gas, sapphires, and jade. After independence the resources remained, but the need to build economic sectors that required immediate technological development became acute. Here Belarus has taken a partner’s place in many directions.
“I deliberately asked you again what the population of Myanmar is today,” the head of state said. “Your population is five times larger than Belarus’s. That is a huge figure behind which stand the destinies of people. These people first of all need to be fed and clothed. In this regard you can count on Belarus.”
“Over the past two years we have studied your state well and possess solid information about its needs. I must repeat once more: Belarus has all the technologies to help, train, and supply the Myanmar people with everything necessary today and tomorrow,” the Belarusian leader declared.
The President is confident that Myanmar has already understood that Belarus and its citizens are reliable and capable of solving many of the tasks facing the Myanmar people.
Min Aung Hlaing replied: “Mr. President, I want to thank you for the warm reception. It is a great honor for me. This time my delegation includes officials and businessmen who have come to Belarus to familiarize themselves with your country’s technologies. My team is here to develop the economy and trade between our countries. I remember you saying that there are no closed topics between Belarus and Myanmar. Therefore we have come with the intention of expanding relations not only in the economy but in many other directions as well.”
Myanmar is already considered a close partner of Belarus in the Asian region. The task now is to increase trade turnover and, of course, to use the logistics that official Naypyidaw possesses. The country has direct access to the Indian Ocean — a strategic window onto world trade.
A memorandum on footwear production on the territory of Myanmar has been signed, reported Nadezhda Lazarevich, chairwoman of the Bellegprom Concern. According to her, the Belarusian side will work with partners, providing assistance based on Belarusian technological potential. “Assistance in the supply of leather and leather goods. But we will sew and produce them in Myanmar,” she noted.
Many of the concrete agreements are the result of two previous business forums — one held just yesterday and another during the Belarusian President’s visit to Myanmar in November last year. There was also a working visit this July.
Alexander Khodzhayev, Minister of Health of Belarus: “Our partners are interested; they are studying the range of equipment. Therefore we are convinced that the trial steps concerning computer tomographs, our ambulances, and medicinal products will certainly bring us a certain benefit.”
The economy is key. During the expanded talks the sides will synchronize their watches on the programs through 2028.
The head of state noted that the guidelines for work are defined and fixed in the roadmap for the development of cooperation for 2026–2028. Its implementation will be assisted by the opening this year of embassies of the two countries in Minsk and Naypyidaw.
“The task of the Belarusian diplomatic mission is formulated extremely specifically — hand in hand with the state bodies of Myanmar to ensure the launch of joint projects in the spheres of industrial cooperation, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and others. And in 2027 all these projects must move from the paper phase to the stage of implementation on the ground,” Alexander Lukashenko stated.
According to him, Belarus and Myanmar have already done a great deal for this. Thanks to the resumption of inter-parliamentary and inter-party cooperation the horizon of interaction has been expanded.
Lukashenko noted that the sides had earlier signed a large package of documents, many of which have already entered into force. For example, the agreement on the abolition of visas is working — bureaucratic barriers have been reduced. And during the current visit of the Myanmar President to Belarus the bilateral legal framework is being supplemented with new documents with an emphasis on trade and economic cooperation.