On February 4, 1997, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Belarus endorsed an agreement at the United Nations headquarters to establish diplomatic relations. Previously, Venezuela had officially recognized the independence of Belarus on January 11, 1992.
Under this agreement, the South American and European nations celebrated on Tuesday the 24th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, reaching a high-level cooperation and strengthening fraternal ties after the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Minsk and the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Caracas were opened in 2006.
Since then, the Governments of Commander Hugo Chávez and President Lukashenko boosted strategic, cooperation bilateral relations in different areas such as industry, oil and housing, paving the way for the establishment of Belarusian-Venezuelan joint ventures MAZVEN, VENEMINSK, MAZ and MTZ, as well as one PDVSA-BELORUFSNET joint venture for oil extraction, refining and trade.
Likewise, within the framework of Venezuela’s housing program, the Ministry of People’s Power for Habitat and Housing has developed a big housing construction project with Belarus’ company JSV Belzarubezhstroy, resulting in the construction of 7,760 houses and more than 4,248 houses under construction for a total of around 12,000 housing units.
Currently, Belarus and Venezuelan are assessing further mechanisms to bypass the U.S. economic blockade imposed on Venezuela.
After the passing of Commander Chávez in 2013, a terrible campaign against the Venezuelan people was intensified, leading to the seizure of Venezuela’s resources in international financial markets and a decline in foreign exchange incomes as the unilateral coercive measures imposed on the South American country sanction the Venezuelan oil industry to block any possibility of survival, being oil Venezuela’s most important resource (oil represents around 90% of the country’s export incomes).
In this regard, Venezuela recently passed the “Anti-Blockade Constitutional Law for National Development and the Guarantee of Human Rights” as a legal alternative to fight the unilateral coercive measures, and created the “International Center for Productive Investment,” a state-run institution aiming to restore the country’s economic system affected by the seizure of assets overseas and unilateral coercive measures, and to boost the domestic economic activity by establishing foreign productive alliances, favoring domestic development, recovering public infrastructure and the country’s productive capacity.
Likewise, these legal instruments seek the stability of the productive, financial system, incentives for large-scale foreign investment, and the selective substitution of imports to improve domestic incomes by easing, for instance, the Venezuelan state’s shareholding in joint ventures, aiming to recover and improve the standard of living of the most vulnerable population.
The recent election of a new National Assembly in Venezuela paved the way for establishing a space for political, legislative debate enabling to strengthen and open new paths for cooperation with Venezuela’s strategic partners such as the Republic of Belarus, a country with which the South American country has a close economic, commercial cooperation and develop large-scale productive projects.
In their 24 years of diplomatic relations, Venezuela and Belarus have adhered to the principles of mutual respect, reciprocal benefits and common development by deepening their political reliance and pragmatic cooperation, and following an excellent trend towards a positive development of their bilateral relations. Therefore, since 2020, the two countries have moved forward in other important sectors such as commercial bilateral relations under a new strategic vision, aiming to the reconfiguration of bilateral cooperation, recognizing their realities under a win-win relation and guaranteeing agile exchange mechanisms.
Withing the framework of these initiatives, Venezuela’s PDVSA and Belarus’ BELORUSNEFT are evaluating and discussing the implementation of a plan to reactivate and recover oil production levels.
Venezuela and Belarus are also working on an agreement to provide air services, involving the Belarus’ Department of Aviation and Ministry of Transport and Communications and Venezuela’s Civil Aeronautics National Institute, to activate the Minsk-Caracas air route.
Furthermore, the two countries are making efforts to boost relations in the area of university education in order to reach an agreement on mutual recognition and equivalence of educational documents and academic titles, diplomas and certificates. Also, Belarus’ Education Ministry is offering 15 scholarships for Venezuelan students as part of the 2021 scholarship program.
Noteworthily, on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the Venezuela-Belarus diplomatic relations, the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the Republic of Belarus announced the 2021 cultural agenda of the “Simón Bolívar” Latin American Cultural Center. This cultural agenda includes the opening of the Américo Díaz Núñez Hall as a tribute to the first Venezuelan ambassador to the Republic of Belarus. The Américo Díaz Núñez Hall, located in the Venezuelan Embassy, features a library with hundreds of Latin American books, and it will be open for Belarusians who want to participate in Spanish language learning activities.
Despite the geographical distance, the Venezuela-Belarus relations have become stronger and more active, seeking common interests in the political, economic, cultural and humanitarian areas.
Venezuela and Belarus share a common view on the problems affecting the international community, enabling them to foster the idea of a multipolar world and non-interference in their domestic affairs.