Belarus may turn into important interlink on Silk Road: Chinese ambassador

Belarus may turn into an important interlink along the new Silk Road due to its geographic location and its dynamic cooperation with China, Chinese Ambassador to Belarus Cui Qimin said Tuesday.

Belarus is a geographic anchor point on the Silk Road Economic Belt in Europe. It is a gateway to the huge markets of the European Economic Unit (EEU) and the European Union (EU), and to the Baltic and Black Sea, the ambassador told Xinhua.

Relations between China and Belarus have been developing dynamically in recent years. In 2013 the two countries announced that bilateral ties would be lifted to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Against the backdrop of a global economic recession, two-way trade in 2015 reached 3.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.6 percent from 2014. China has become Belarus' third largest trading partner. The volume of China's total investment in Belarus amounted to 1.34 billion dollars in 2015, the ambassador said.

The two countries are actively working on utilizing a credit line of 7 billion dollars to Belarus, announced in 2015. The first projects will be launched soon, the ambassador said.

A Chinese space vehicle has recently launched a Belarusian communications satellite into orbit. Space technology has become a new avenue of bilateral cooperation.

The two sides are also working together to set up the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park, a mutually beneficial and environmentally friendly platform for international industrial cooperation and a model project on the Silk Road Economic Belt, the ambassador said. Endi