Dear friends,
Next year, we will celebrate the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of India. For nearly 30 years, our countries have maintained diplomatic missions in Minsk and New Delhi, and the Belarusian capital and Bangalore, India, will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their sister-city relations this year.
Belarusians have always held great affection for India, which has produced many great thinkers, political figures, writers, and artists. We remember well Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and many other outstanding Indians.
Despite numerous geopolitical changes in recent decades, our peoples have maintained warm friendships that began during the Soviet era. Thousands of kilometers separate us, but Belarusians and Indians continue to maintain close and trusting ties.
Indians, like Belarusians, are a tolerant, peace-loving, and reasonable people. We, like you, never accept interference in the internal affairs of any sovereign state and advocate for resolving global problems through diplomacy, not force and pressure. We strive for prosperity through painstaking daily work and patience, which enable us to overcome all difficulties.
For modern Belarusians, an Indian is someone who has inherited the ancient and rich spiritual culture of your great country. They are wise people who treat others openly and with great respect and who look to the future with optimism. But it’s not only India’s ancient culture and history that Belarusians admire. Indians’ successes in economics, science, information technology, biotechnology, medicine, energy, and other fields make India one of the most dynamically developing countries in the world.
Many Belarusians are deeply interested in Indian culture. Since Soviet times, we have fondly remembered and cherished your cinema, dances, and songs, on which entire generations of our citizens were raised. Belarusians, young and old, remember how their entire families would gather around the television to watch Indian films starring Raj Kapoor.
Regarding the foreign policy component of our relations, I believe that the main result of the past years is the preservation of friendly and allied relations based on high trust, mutual support, and respect, both bilaterally and internationally.
At the same time, the high level of political interaction achieved between Belarus and India over the past decade has effectively translated into the intensification of the entire range of Belarusian-Indian relations. Our bilateral cooperation is steadily growing, despite all the trials and tribulations life presents us with. Institutional mechanisms such as political consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries, the Intergovernmental Commission on Cooperation in Economics, Trade, Industry, Science, Technology and Culture, and many others allow us to expand and enhance cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
At the same time, our trade relations, characterized by natural complementarity, cover a wide range of areas – from energy and agricultural products to medical technologies and innovation.
Speaking about the focus of Belarus’s foreign policy, President Aleksandr Lukashenko identified India as a priority for 2026. Our goal is to further deepen and intensify trade, economic, and investment cooperation with India, as the current level of trade turnover between Belarus and India, as well as mutually beneficial cooperation in scientific, technical, and humanitarian spheres, does not reflect its true potential.
In conclusion, I would like to say that Belarus reaffirms its firm commitment to further strengthening ties with India. The road ahead is full of opportunities – not only in established areas of cooperation, but also in new areas related to the digital economy and knowledge society. Together, we can build a promising partnership that will make a significant contribution to the prosperity and well-being of both our countries.
I sincerely wish all the citizens of India love, kindness, joy, and prosperity.
Maxim Ryzhenkov