The Belarus Ambassador to Malta, Evgeny Shestakov, wants to get the idea across in Malta that Belarus could act as a gateway to Russia and Kazakhstan, saying it could be an “assembly line” for goods aimed at these markets.
“We are part of the Eurasian Economic Community formed in 1996 and the Customs Union in 2012. This will become a full Eurasian Economic Union by 2015 – representing an important economic association which has no political or military connotations,” he said during a recent visit.
Although he is a regular visitor to Malta from his base in Rome, this was Mr Shestakov’s first visit since the elections and an opportunity to sound out the new government’s intentions.
While here he met Malta Enterprise as well as the Speaker, the Foreign Minister and Shadow Foreign Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Enterprise and the Malta Tourism Authority. He also met several businessmen.
Malta established diplomatic relations with Belarus in 1993, just two years after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Although there was no accredited ambassador between 2003 and 2011, Mr Shestakov has held the post since then. In the meantime, jeweller Paul Fenech was appointed consul by the Maltese Government, while Johann Baldacchino Romano was appointed as Malta’s represent-ative at the Belarussian chamber.
Mr Shestakov admits that there were no “relations” to speak of when he took up his position.
“Let us say that things could not have become worse. So the only way was for them to get better,” he said, giving as reasons the 2,200km distance with no direct flights, lack of historic links and scant bilateral knowledge.
Sometimes, such links come indirectly: For example, Belarus managed to forge ties with Italy through humanitarian exchanges after children from the Chernobyl region were hosted for holidays there.
“With Italy we have $1.6 billion worth of trade. But with Malta we have just $2-3 million, of which only €60,000 were exports from Malta,” he said.
But even this amount represents a threefold increase from the figures he found in 2011, an amount spent on medicines, semiconductor chips and jet engine parts.
“We do not expect to trade with dozens of companies in Malta. We are not after quantity but quality,” he said.
“We need to work to find the right niches.”
Belarus has its eyes clearly on the EU, its top trade partner ahead of Russia, but the country’s image was tarnished by the result of the 2010 Presidential elections, which are not recognised by the US. Mr Shestakov said that elections were internal affairs that should have no impact on trade, adding that there were observers from the former Soviet republics who had accepted the outcome of the elections which returned Aleksander Lukashenko to power, a position he has held since 1994.
“We know that there were reproaches but the former Soviet republics were states in transition and the important thing is that we do not bow to pressure from any side, including Russia and the EU. It would be impossible for us to develop without Russia, but we appreciate the dynamism and vitality of the EU,” he said.
“We are open for dialogue whenever this is done with respect. Nothing is ever perfect and we are always open to improvements.”
Mr Shestakov is not interested only in trade in products. He believes that Belarus, with its 10,000 lakes and extensive forests, has a lot to offer tourists, especially those interested in activity holidays, fishing and hunting.
Visas are obtained through the embassy in Italy by post for just €20 for a tourist visit. No “invitation” is required and processing takes just five days. There are also fast-track options for those who need to travel at short notice.
“We recently hosted the Actavis LifeCycle participants, who started their 2,000km challenge from Minsk, and our countries have had football and waterpolo encounters. Malta even voted for us in the Eurovision,” he joked.
“I hope that we will see a lot more events in the future.”