The visit of the President of Lithuania to Belarus allows for expectations of expanding the partnership between the two countries

October 21, Minsk /BELTA/. The visit of Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė to Belarus gives grounds to expect an expansion of partnership between the two countries in the economic and political spheres. This opinion was expressed in an interview with BELTA correspondent by Sergey Kizima, Doctor of Political Sciences, Head of the Department of International Relations at the Academy of Management under the President of the Republic of Belarus. Speaking about the significance and outcomes of the Lithuanian president's visit to Belarus, he highlighted two aspects - economic and political. Touching upon the latter, the expert recalled that Lithuania will chair the OSCE next year, succeeding Kazakhstan, and in this regard, our country hopes for a consistent improvement of relations with this international organization. "During Kazakhstan's chairmanship, Belarus's relations with the OSCE have improved. Our country expects this trend to continue during Lithuania's chairmanship," said Sergey Kizima. Moreover, Dalia Grybauskaitė confirmed during her visit her intention to continue the course towards developing good-neighborly relations with Belarus in the future. According to the expert, there are grounds to expect positive progress in the economic cooperation between Belarus and Lithuania in the near future, including an increase in trade turnover between the countries, the volume of which has decreased due to the crisis. By the way, it was the crisis that prompted new EU members, particularly Lithuania, to more actively seek trade and economic partners outside the European Union, the expert is confident. The fact is that old EU members, experiencing the consequences of the crisis, proved unable to provide economic support to new participants in the previous volume, helping them to adapt more successfully to the conditions of the European Union. "Therefore, more and more leaders of new EU member states realize the need to involve the resources of the state apparatus more seriously to independently solve emerging economic problems," explained Sergey Kizima. In such conditions, mutual investments become of great importance. "Each country has its strengths in certain sectors of the economy. Cooperation in these sectors will have a positive effect for both sides," believes Sergey Kizima. The economies of the two countries are united by the factor of dependence on energy resource imports. It is in the mutual interest of Belarus and Lithuania to develop new routes for energy resource supply, without which effective economic development is impossible. Sergey Kizima drew attention to the fact that economic partnership will bring benefits to each side. For example, Lithuania finds it extremely difficult to fully realize its transit potential without Belarus. It will be used more effectively if the volume of goods exported and imported by Belarus through Lithuania increases. In turn, Belarus, lacking access to the world's oceans, can offer Lithuania certain preferences for providing greater opportunities for Belarusian goods and components to enter the world market.-0-