2024-08-23 14:02:00
Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang visited Belarus on Thursday (August 22), which has been sanctioned by the West for supporting Moscow in the Russo-Ukrainian war. The two countries later issued a joint communiqué, jointly condemning the use of illegal unilateral coercive measures, and stated that they would work on national defense, Strengthen cooperation in law enforcement, security, trade and other fields.
Scholars interviewed analyzed that China chose this time to enhance bilateral military and economic and trade relations, obviously to send warmth to Belarus, which is increasingly isolated by the West. However, Beijing’s move does not mean that it will tighten its alliance with Minsk. In its statement, it also consciously avoided provoking Europe.
Li Qiang concludes two-day visit to RussiaLater, he continued his official visit to Belarus for two days, during which he first met with Belarusian President Lukashenko and later held talks with Belarusian Prime Minister Golovchenko in the capital Minsk. The last time Li Qiang visited Belarus was when he served as governor of Zhejiang Province in May 2015 and accompanied Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Minsk.
According to the Chinese official Xinhua News Agency, Li Qiang said when meeting with Lukashenko that China is willing to continue to consolidate political mutual trust with Belarus, strengthen the docking of development strategies, solidly promote cooperation in various fields, and steadily expand the scale of trade.
The Belarusian official media BelTA quoted Lukashenko as stressing during the meeting that the most urgent task for the two countries at present is to elevate economic and investment cooperation to the level of political cooperation. He said that Belarus and China are jointly promoting 15 new strategic investment projects, totaling US$3 billion (S$3.9 billion), involving biotechnology, industrial chemicals, etc.
Lukashenko also described the “Services Trade and Investment Agreement” signed by the two countries on Thursday as “historic.” Since this agreement will establish transparent and predictable rules, Belarus’ service exports to China are expected to increase by at least 12% in the next five years, and China’s investment in Minsk will also increase by at least 30%.
The EU announced at the end of June this yearEighth round of sanctions imposed on Belarusaiming to close loopholes that allow Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions. The new sanctions not only restrict the export of advanced dual-use products and technologies to Minsk, but also prohibit the import of energy, mineral products, etc. from Belarus.
China has been Belarus’s second largest trading partner for many years. Last year, bilateral trade volume reached a new high of US$8.5 billion (S$11.1 billion), an annual increase of more than 134%.
Chinese officials released a seven-point joint communique between the Chinese and Belarusian governments on Friday (23rd), which identified important directions for cooperation between the two countries before 2030, including a commitment to promote the newly signed “Service Trade and Investment Agreement” to take effect as soon as possible and strengthen the industrial and supply chains. Cooperate to continuously improve the level of trade facilitation and liberalization and reduce costs for both parties. The two sides will also expand inter-bank credit and financial cooperation and strengthen cooperation in agricultural investment, energy, and China-Europe flights.
In the communique, the two countries also condemned the use of illegal unilateral coercive measures and expressed support for peaceful resolution of conflicts and constructive bilateral dialogue between countries.
Zhu Feng, executive dean of the School of International Relations at Nanjing University, analyzed in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao that China is currently continuing its strategic collaboration with Russia and it is impossible to adopt different policies towards Belarus, which continues to have close political relations with Moscow. If Beijing follows the United States and Europe on the issue of sanctions against Minsk, it will inevitably pose a great challenge to its policy toward Russia.
Zhu Feng believes that although China has continued to send warmth to Belarus recently, regardless of the12-day joint anti-terrorism military exerciseis the latest joint statement, “these cooperation are still more formal than substantive content.” He pointed out that in the latest joint statement, Beijing also consciously avoided provoking Europe and did not clearly release its strategic intention to closely unite with Minsk, so Uniting with Belarus is not conducive to China’s strategic goals centered on economic construction.
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