Belarus has established an embassy in Abuja after 20 years of maintaining diplomatic relations with Nigeria, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
Its Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Vyacheslav Beskosty, told NAN in Abuja on Sunday that the move was part of efforts to further boost bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
He said Nigeria and Belarus had in the past 20 years, been cooperating at the level of international organisations such as the UN.
``We have been supporting each other’s candidates in various committees at the UN and other bodies,’’ he said.
The envoy added that both nations had been involved in trade and investment with the volume standing at 97.3 million dollars in 2011.
According to him, the figure accounts for rubber, cocoa and leather imports from Nigeria while Belarus’ exports were in fertilizer, oil products and printing.
He listed new areas of cooperation to include education and culture, saying that at least, 500 Nigerian students were studying privately in Belarus.
``We are interested in investment and will be partnering with Bauchi State to assemble Belarusian tractors.
``Bauchi already has a factory for this. It is a very good site. Since they will be locally produced, the tractors will be affordable.’’
He said the partnership will also include technical assistance and capacity-building for Nigerians.
Beskosty also listed Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe as the possible location for a 200 million dollar electricity project by a Belarusian company, MG Motors.
NAN reports that with the establishment of an embassy in Abuja, Belarus now have four missions in Africa located in Libya, Egypt and South Africa.
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This is very good news also for some of us who studied and have families from there.
ReplyDeleteAm so happy to hear this. I have plans to go & further my education there. Anyone with helpful info should pls email me. andymore007@yahoo.com. Thanks in anticipation
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