ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan and Belarus on Wednesday inked 18 accords of cooperation in diverse fields including aviation, education, customs and banking.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko inked the joint statement and also witnessed the signing of documents at a ceremony held at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad.
The two countries signed note on Exchange of Instruments of Ratification on ‘Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation’, on legal assistance in civil and commercial matters, and on customs matters.
Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei signed the three documents.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between State Bank of Pakistan and National Bank of Belarus, by Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SPB) Saeed Ahmed and Deputy Chairman of the Board of National Bank Mamanovich Petr.
A Protocol amending the convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasian with respect to Taxes on Income was inked by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Minister of Taxation and Revenue Sergei Nalvaiko.
Minister of State for Education Balighur Rehman and Belarusian Education Minister Mikhail Zhuravkov signed eight accords in education sector of Pakistan and Belarus.
These include a MoU in vocational training between the education ministries, and seven agreements between the top universities of two countries in the fields of mutual recognition of educational certificates, establishment of Urdu and Belarusian language chairs, and academic and innovative research.
The agreements on education took place among Pakistan’s National University of Modern Languages and Quaid-e-Azam University and Minsk’s State Linguistic University, Belarusian State Technological University and Belarusian State University of Culture.
The Air Services agreement between Pakistan and Belarus was signed by Secretary Aviation Muhammad Irfan Elahi and Director of Belarus Aviation Department Kostin Vladimir.
The MoU between the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and National Centre for Marketing and belarus’ Price Study of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was signed by Minister for Commerce Engineer Khurram Dastagir Khan and Belarusian Foreign Affairs Minister Markei Vladimir.
Likewise, the MoU between Pakistan’s Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Communications and Information of Belarus in sphere of postal activities was inked by Secretary Communication Khalid Masood and Ambassador of Belarus Andrei Emolovich.
