Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is arriving in Dushanbe today on a three-day official visit. Following the official welcoming ceremony, Emomali Rahmon and Lukashenko will meet one-on-one discussion.

Emomali Rahmon and Lukashenko will review the progress made and discuss plans to expand trade and economic cooperation and to step up joint work in the manufacturing industry, as well as implementation of joint projects, including investment projects, and joint activities on the markets of third countries.

A package of bilateral cooperation agreements will be signed following the talks, in particular a roadmap for the bilateral cooperation for 2019-2020 between Tajikistan and Belarus.

The presidents are scheduled to take part in the opening of Belarus’ national expo in Tajikistan and a series of other events.

A Tajikistan-Belarus business forum will take place during the official visit of Belarus’ head of state to Dushanbe. Attending the event will be representatives of the business community of Afghanistan. Other events include a business matchmaking session for enterprises and organizations of the three countries. Participants of the forum will discuss promising areas of economic cooperation with Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Belarus’ Ambassador to Tajikistan Oleg Ivanov noted that some 15 bilateral documents are to be signed during the official visit of Belarus’ president. Apart from the abovementioned cooperation roadmap, they include a joint statement of the presidents, a number of agreements, as well as cooperation plans between government agencies, reported Belta News Agency.

The ambassador unveiled some details of the forthcoming Belarus’ National Expo in Tajikistan. He underlined that it will be among Belarus’ biggest expos abroad in recent years. Taking part in the event will be representatives of nearly 150 companies and organizations. Joint assembly products will be showcased there. Everything Belarus is proud of will be presented, including food industry, mechanical engineering, education, healthcare, sport and tourism, chemistry, communication, and information technologies, the diplomat added.

Belarus took an exclusively pragmatic approach to the choice of exhibits. “We will bring machinery here not to boast. Therefore, we will pick only those machines that can be in demand in Tajikistan and the neighboring countries. Machinery will be brought on order. We want the businessmen who will take part in our events to be able to see and touch the things they have ordered using catalogues, the Internet or by direct negotiations,” the diplomat noted.

Speaking about the forthcoming business forum in Dushanbe, Oleg Ivanov underlined that from the very beginning this event was meant to be tripartite and involve business people from Afghanistan. However, by now dozens of companies from Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have confirmed their participation in the forum. Several dozens of contracts and memorandums of intent estimated at dozens of million dollars are expected to be signed.

Belarus-Tajikistan trade was estimated at $42.9 million in 2017, twice as much compared with 2016. Positive trends remained in place in 2018. In January-March 2018 the bilateral trade grew by 47% and Belarus’ export to Tajikistan increased by 60% over the same period in 2017. Oleg Ivanov explained that such impressive figures can be partially attributed to a setback in 2015-2016 when the trade with the CIS countries dropped. However, a great contribution to the trade expansion was made by agreements reached by the two presidents and great efforts invested by the business community and diplomats. In particular, direct supplies were organized, some logistics issues were removed, and modern schemes of contract financing were employed. The MTZ assembly plant was opened at the Agrotechservice company in the city of Hisor in 2017. Over 15 Belarusian companies developed their own commodity distribution entities in Tajikistan. Among them are such companies as BelAZ, MTZ, MAZ, Amkodor, Gomselmash, Bobruiskagromash.

The ambassador added that the program of the official visit of Belarus’ head of state to Tajikistan will feature the Days of Belarusian Culture and Cinema. The events will be held not only in the capital, but also in other cities and towns of the country.

Representatives of Belarusian higher learning institutions will have their own program in Tajikistan. Two centers will be opened at the M.S. Osimi Tajik Technical University. One of them is Belarus’ Legal Information Center that will also provide access to the Eurasian Economic Union legislation. The other is the Center for Belarusian Language, Culture and Education. Some agreements in the field of education are to be signed.

The parties will discuss an extensive political agenda taking into consideration Tajikistan’s CIS chairmanship and events within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The political agenda includes implementation of peace-keeping initiatives and counterterrorism efforts, as well as joint work as part of international organizations.