India - Belarus Relations

Political

India’s relations with Belarus have been traditionally warm and cordial. India was one of the first countries to recognize Belarus as independent country in 1991. Formal diplomatic relations were established and the Indian diplomatic mission was opened in Minsk in 1992 followed by Belarus in 1998 in New Delhi. There is good understanding and cooperation in the international, multilateral and regional matters with a remarkable commonality of views on almost all international and regional issues. Belarus has been supportive of India’s candidature for a permanent seat at the UNSC. Belarus supported India’s candidature for the non-permanent seat of UNSC for the years 2011-12. Belarus also supported India at the NSG. Belarus was also the co-sponsor the resolution moved by India to declare June 21 as International Day of Yoga. India supported Belarus for its membership in the NAM and also other international and multilateral fora like IPU which was appreciated. India’s supportive stand on various Resolutions in Geneva and New York targeting Belarus for violation of human rights and restrictions on freedom of expression has been appreciated by Belarus. Belarus recognizes India as an emerging global power and seeks to develop a “strategic relationship” with India. Late PM Rajiv Gandhi visited Minsk in 1985 when Belarus was still a part of Soviet Union. High level contacts with Belarus have been maintained. There have been several high level visits from both the sides including visits of President Alexander Lukashenko in 1997 and again in 2007. President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee has paid an official visit to Belarus on 2-4 June 2015 and the Vice President of India in 2005 apart from other ministerial level visits also Parliamentary exchanges. Lok Sabha Speaker, Mrs. Meira Kumar visited Belarus in May 2013. The requisite legal framework in the form of Agreements and MoUs on various subjects of interest and requirement are in place such as Agreements on Trade and Economic Cooperation, Cultural, Educational, Media and Sports Cooperation, S&T Cooperation, Foreign Office Consultations, Avoidance of Double Taxation, Promotion and Protection of Investments, Inter-Governmental Commissions for promotion of economic and commercial interaction and also defence and technical cooperation, During the visit of the Hon’ble President of India to Belarus in June 2015, President has announced Government of India’s decision to extend line of credit for 100 million USD for jointly agreed projects. He also announced the decision of the Government of India to grant Market Economy Status to Belarus. Economic & Commercial Pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, agriculture, fertilizers and food processing have been identified as areas of high potential. Both countries can also expand their links in a range of services such as IT, healthcare, financial services, transport and logistics. As for the energy sector, India has participated in the reconstruction of Grodno power plant in Belarus.

Economic and commercial cooperation with Belarus has been growing steadily ever since its independence in 1991. Two-way trade registered a good increase from US$ 71.97 million in 2002 to a high of US$ 603.72 million in 2009. However, after hovering around US$ 500 million till 2012, bilateral trade got to US$ 431 million in 2014

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primarily because smaller import of Potash fertilizer by India and difficult economic situation in Belarus. The trade balance remains in favour of Belarus. Imports of Potash from Belarus remained high which is the second most important source for India’s requirements of Potash fertilizer.

The potential for increased cooperation is considerable which needs to be

explored, identified and exploited. It offers promising market for India’s pharmaceutical and chemical products, automobile and knowledge-based enterprises. There are good possibilities of investments and joint ventures, particularly in view of the Belarusian industrial and technological strength in manufacturing giant tyres, agro-industrial machinery, mining equipment, and heavy-duty road construction machinery and also the disinvestment process in Belarus. Belarus desires to develop its own pharmaceutical production unit aimed at import substitution. Dairy and agro based industry have outdated machinery and technology and need investments for up gradation. There are a number of projects in power generation and power transmission sector where Indian companies could participate.

The necessary mechanism including India-Belarus Inter-Governmental

Commission for Economic, Trade, Industrial, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IGC) is in place. The 6th meeting of the IGC has been held in Delhi on 24 July 2013. A delegation of businessmen led by the Minister of Industry of Belarus went to India in May 2015. They also signed a cooperation agreement with FICCI. Indian business delegation also visited Belarus on 2-4 June 2015 and signed many agreements with Belarussian companies. India and Belarus completed the ratification process on the Protocol (Amendment) to the Agreement on the Avoidance of Double Taxation of July 1998.

The Hon’ble Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Smt. Nirmala

Sitharaman visited Minsk, Belarus, from 6-7 September 2015 to co-Chair the 7th Meeting of India-Belarus Inter-governmental Commission (IGC) on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation. Protocol on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation was signed. Many other issues like simplification of visa procedures for business travelers, setting up a joint working group to discuss issues related with pharmaceutical sector, cooperation in new areas like tobacco, oil and gas exploration, agriculture and light industrial products, were highlighted in the Protocol. A new target for bilateral trade to reach US$ 1 billion was set to be achieved by 2018.

Indian Fertilizer Delegation led by Secretary, Department of Fertilisers (DoF)

visited Minsk during October 29- November 2, 2015 to hold discussions for expanding cooperation in the Potash Sector with Belarus. The delegation had meetings with the Belarus Potash Company (BPC), Belneftekhim, the State Committee for Properties and Belarusian Deputy PM Mr. Semashko Vladimir. The delegation also visited the Potash mine of Belaruskali in Soligorsk and Gomel Chemical Plant of Belneftekhim in Gomel Oblast.

The bilateral trade figures (in US$ million) are as under:

Year Belarusian Export Belarusian Import Total 2011 374.712 173.094 547.806 2012 262.217 232.214 494.431

2013 169.871 181.441 351.312 2014 243.175 188.523 431.698 2015 (Jan-Oct) 282.029 110.880 392.909

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There is keen interest on both the sides in further strengthening and diversifying economic and commercial interaction between India and Belarus. BHEL has supplied and installed equipment and machinery for Grodno Power Project II in June 2013. Belarusian side has shown interest in engaging Indian companies in its mining sector. Belarusian company Amkodor is developing equipment suited for Indian conditions. In 2011, Belaz signed an MoU with an Indian company Enrika for establishing a joint venture for servicing the Belarusian dump trucks in India. Belarus participated in the India International Trade Fair in November 2012 as ‘Partner Country’. With 60 companies present, Belarus was the largest foreign participant. The trade basket, some details of which are given below, is limited: India’s exports to Belarus: India’s exports to Belarus presently include medicines, raw tobacco and tobacco wastes, cotton yarn, electric transformers, antibiotics, extracts of coffee/tea, rice, compounds of carbonic acid, ferrous metal goods, etc. India’s imports from Belarus: India’s imports from Belarus include Potash fertilizers, Nitrogen fertilizers, nylon cord materials for tyres, artificial threads, hot rolled rods, rubber wastes/off-cuts and scrap, raw iron or alloy-free steel, pneumatic rubber tyres and tubes, polyamides in primary forms, polycarboxilic acids and their anhydrides, etc. Defence

Defence cooperation is an important aspect of India’s bilateral relations with Belarus. There is India-Belarus Joint Commission on Military Technical Cooperation which last met in Minsk on 21-22 May 2015. India also offers 10 slots to Belarus for training/attachment of their military and defence personnel in various Indian institutions under the ITEC arrangements. There could be increased scope of defence cooperation with Belarus particularly in view of the fact that Belarus has manufacturing and technological backup from the ex-Soviet Union era which could be of interest to the Indian side. Under “Assistance to Belarus for clearance of Explosives Remnants of War (ERWs) under Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Protocol V”, India supplied 90 Radio sets and 30 GPS navigators and 25 Mine detectors to Belarus in April 2014 and March 2015 respectively. Science & Technology Belarus has a good and high quality human resources and strong scientific and technological establishment. There could be good possibilities of increased S&T cooperation. The concerned agencies like the DRDO and DST on the Indian side and the Belarus’ State Committee on Science & Technology and Belarus Academy of Sciences, etc. are engaged with each other in areas of mutual interest. Belarusian side is quite keen to increase these contacts and interaction. Belarus played an important role in setting up the Advance Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials in Hyderabad in 1991. A Digital Learning Centre in ICT at High Technology Park in Minsk has been set up in 2011 for which DIT (C-DAC) was the nodal agency on the Indian side. 6th meeting of India – Belarus Intergovernmental Commission on cooperation in S&T was held on December 12, 2014 in New Delhi. Culture & Education

Belarus carries the legacy of the Indo-USSR cultural relations. Indian films, dance and music are quite popular in Belarus. Many young Belarusians have keen interest in learning Hindi and also classical dances of India. ICCR offers every year some scholarships to Belarusian students to train them in various performing arts schools and

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institutions in India. The Indo-Belarus Friendship Society has many eminent Belarusians from different walks of the society. The Belarusian National University is interested in an ICCR sponsored Hindi Professor. Belarus is keen in having institutionalized arrangements for exchange of sports teams. Belarus has also shown interest in establishing cooperation in joint production of feature films involving Indian and Belarusian artists. A Belarusian Sanskrit scholar Prof. Mikhail Mikhailov wrote a book “Key to Vedas” in Russian which has also been translated into English. Another Belarusian Indophile, late Ms. Taisa Bondar had translated Saint Kabir’s verses in Russian language.

With a view to encourage and promote cultural affinities, a local teacher is running classes for Indian classical and modern dances in the chancery. Similarly, Yoga classes are also being held at the Chancery. Indian cultural shows are organized by the Embassy in various towns of Belarus with the assistance of local Indian dance/cultural groups being run by ICCR scholarship alumni. A cultural troupe, which was sponsored by ICCR under a programme ‘Namaste Belarus’, led by the well-known Santoor player Pandit Bhajan Sopori visited Belarus on 9-12th March, 2015. They presented performances in Minsk and in Vitebsk, Belarus. A bust of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled by President of India on 3rd June 2015 in Belarusian State University.

An International Day of Yoga (IDoY) was celebrated in Minsk on 21 June, 2015.

Around 7,000 people visited the park and become part of the Yoga Day Celebrations. There has been ongoing educational links from the Soviet days. Currently, there are 150 students from India studying in various Universities and Institutions in Belarus mostly in medicine and engineering. There could be increased possibilities in this regard by establishing institutional arrangements between the educational institutions. Belarus is a beneficiary of India’s ITEC programme with 40 slots for short-term training courses for 2015-16. Nearly 260 Belarusian professionals are ITEC alumni. ITEC Day 2015 was celebrated on 15 October 2015 in the Embassy’s premises. Around 90 ITEC alumni participated in the event.

Belarus has an Honorary Consulate in Kolkata opened in December 2002. Currently, Shri Sitaram Sharma is the Honorary Consul of Belarus.

Useful Resources: Embassy of India, Minsk website: http://www.indembminsk.in/ Embassy of India, Minsk Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Indian-EmbassyMinsk/118074464965513?ref=ts&fref=ts

**** January 2016

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