Benghazi— An unusually high-level delegation headed by the Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Karankevich has arrived in Benghazi on Sunday in an official visit aimed at strengthening bilateral relations between Libya and Belarus.
The visit comes in less than three weeks since the Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar visited Belarus on 17 February and held official talks with the Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The Prime Minister of the Libyan government (appointed by the Parliament), Osama Hamad, welcomed the Belarusian delegation at Benina International Airport in Benghazi along with a number of ministers and security officials.
A statement by the government said the visit would witness the holding of a number of meetings as it “comes in light of strengthening relations between the two friendly countries in all fields and raising the levels of joint bilateral cooperation”.
During Mr. Haftar’s visit, both men discussed ways and means of enhancing bilateral cooperation in various fields and they reviewed the “the regional and international issues of common interest, in a way that strengthens strategic interests of both parties”.
“Everything we will agree on today, during the days of your stay in Belarus, will be implemented on time. Therefore, let me welcome you and all members of your delegation to Belarus. We are ready to work,” the Belarusian leader said as quoted by BelTA.
Within this framework, the high-level Belarusian delegation’s coming to Benghazi can be seen as a follow-up aimed at implementing what was agreed upon during Mr. Haftar own official visit to Belarus.
Haftar is leading a reconstruction drive in eastern and southern Libya and even in western Libya where the Government of National Unity (GNU) is in control, therefore, he seem to be counting on the Belarusians for cooperation in the reconstruction process as well as in agriculture and industrial joint ventures.
Libya currently remains in a deepening crisis mired by a political deadlock and lives in what UNSMIL officials described as a period of “transitional architecture [that] is crumbling under the weight of political polarization and the lack of a clear project for a permanent system of governance”.
The high-level Belarusian delegation includes, along with the Deputy Prime Minister Karankevich and the Chairman of the State Security Committee – Head of the Intelligence Service, Lieutenant General Ivan Tertel, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lukashvin, Minister of Industry Yekimov Vladimirovich, Minister of Agriculture Yuri Gorlov, Minister of Health Khojaev Valerievich, Minister of Emergency Situations Major General Vadim Sinyavsky, Minister of Education Ivanets Ivanovich, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Belarusian State Oil and Chemical Company “Belneftekhim” Ikan Valerievich.
