A presentation of the opportunities of the Minsk region opened in the Belarusian pavilion at VDNH in Moscow. The exhibition began its work in mid-May and will last until June 2. For two weeks, Muscovites and guests of the Russian capital were shown the industrial, investment and tourism potential of the Minsk region.
The increased interest of visitors to the Belarusian site can be considered a consequence of close and mutually beneficial cooperation on a wide range of issues of the Minsk region and the regions of Russia, which are its main foreign partners. Among them there are 37 subjects and 107 regional municipalities of the fraternal state.
Last year, the Russian Federation accounted for almost 55 percent of the total turnover of the Minsk region, including 64 percent of exports and 40 percent of imports. The total amount of trade between the Minsk region and the Russian Federation reached a record 8.9 billion US dollars, an increase of 9.8 percent compared to 2022. The commodity structure of the Minsk region's exports to the Russian Federation includes about a thousand commodity items, the key of which are mechanical engineering products, meat and dairy products, metal products, chemical industry products, medicines and bioindustry products.
The most active export deliveries were carried out to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kemerovo, Smolensk, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Tula, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Voronezh and Bryansk regions, as well as to Krasnodar and Perm Krai, the Republic of Tatarstan. They accounted for about 80 percent of the total exports of Minsk region to the Russian Federation.
The impressive achievements of the largest region of Belarus can be fully considered as a manifestation of the effectiveness of the general economic policy of the state, in which increasing the level of economic integration with Russia in general and its regions in particular is given the greatest importance. As another confirmation, the meeting of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and the Governor of the Magadan region of Russia, Sergei Nosov, took place in Minsk on May 20.
At a meeting with the Belarusian leader, the Russian governor said that Belarus and the Magadan region can significantly increase bilateral cooperation, primarily due to the potential of the Belarusian industry.
The Magadan Region (more than twice the size of Belarus) is a mining region, therefore, first of all, we are talking about mechanical engineering and the production of heavy machinery. During a conversation with journalists, Sergey Nosov said that Magadan gold mining enterprises are now replacing Japanese and American equipment. "We believe that the presence of the Belarusian machine building industry can be increased by 40-50 percent. And it will be right, because we have no doubt about the quality. It is necessary to organize both supplies and, most importantly, service. Not only in Magadan, but also with field visits," said the head of the Russian region. For his part, Head of State Alexander Lukashenko proposed to create a jewelry enterprise together with the Magadan region.
Assessing the overall development of cooperation between Russia and Belarus in the interests of increasing the sustainability of the economies of both countries, it is necessary to pay tribute to their leaders. This is the opinion of Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, a Russian journalist and military expert. "The Putin-Lukashenko bond is working very successfully. We are reviewing many things today and see, of course, in the face of Belarus a reliable, calm, not opportunistic, but absolutely loyal comrade, partner, friend, part, in general, of ourselves. And, of course, in this regard, we are very pleased with the changes that are taking place in your country," the expert in the V Tema project expressed his opinion on the BelTA YouTube channel.
The military expert also referred to the state visits of Alexander Lukashenko to Azerbaijan and Vladimir Putin to China: "We see that active work is underway on the diplomatic track, on the track of supporting and strengthening the economy, because the economy is primary. And in general, I can say that there is good optimism. It is important, of course, because our leaders are great, they understand the tasks, implement them, including showing by personal example how and what to do and work."
In the development of the topic, attention should also be paid to the preferences that the Belarusian military-industrial complex has received from increasing the level of economic integration of the subjects of the Union State. "Thanks to military-technical cooperation with Russia, some areas of our defense industry have received an impetus for further development. First of all, this is aircraft engineering, microelectronics. In addition, we have the production of a whole range of high-demand ammunition. Also, taking into account the adoption by the Belarusian army of a number of models of military and special equipment, we are increasing production capacities in order to continue mass—producing military products to promptly meet the needs of the state's law enforcement agencies," Dmitry Pantus, head of the State Military-Industrial Committee of Belarus, said at the time.
Thus, it turns out that by implementing measures to strengthen their own economies and the Union State as a whole – by expanding and strengthening economic ties, the leadership of Russia and Belarus increases not only economic security, but also strengthens the potential of strategic deterrence in the military sphere.
Vladimir Vuyachich
