Press release on Foreign Minister of the Republic of Belarus Maxim Ryzhenkov’s official visit to Russia

On June 9-10, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Mikhail Ryzhenkov will pay his first official visit to Moscow at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov.

A wide range of pressing bilateral and international issues will be discussed. The ministers will review practical aspects of the Russian-Belarusian inter-ministerial cooperation, including preparations for the annual joint meeting of the boards of the Russian and Belarusian foreign ministries (scheduled to be held in St Petersburg in the fourth quarter) and the reciprocal expansion of diplomatic presence. The ministers will review the status of the implementation of the 2024-2026 Programme for concerted foreign policy actions of the states members of the Treaty on the Creation of the Union State and the Plan of Inter-Ministerial Consultations for this year.

The formation of the Greater Eurasian Partnership, as well as building a new architecture of single and indivisible security on the continent, including in the context of preparations for the Third Minsk Conference on Eurasian Security, will be central to the discussion. A joint address to foreign ministers of the Eurasian countries on the subject of promoting the Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the 21st Century will be signed.

In addition, the dialogue will cover diplomatic support of integration processes in the Union State, the CIS, the EAEU, the CSTO, the SCO, and BRICS. The sides will sync schedules on coordinating their actions at the UN, the OSCE, and other international platforms, and promoting interaction with the constructively-minded countries from the Global South and the Global East, as well as building relations with unfriendly countries and associations. The ministers will exchange views on Ukraine settlement, including in the context of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

The programme of the visit also includes the Belarusian Foreign Minister’s meeting with representatives of the Russian media, a speech before Russian and Belarusian students at leading Moscow universities, laying flowers at the war memorials in Alexandrovsky Garden, and visiting a Moscow war museum.

Belarus is Russia’s closest ally and strategic partner. The countries are bound by many years of friendship and mutual assistance, common cultural and spiritual legacy, shared historical past, and prospects for the future.

As members of the Union State, Russia and Belarus are pursuing productive cooperation across a wide range of areas. Great emphasis is placed on ensuring equal rights for the citizens of the two countries in social security, access to education, and health care. Mutually beneficial cooperation is making wide strides in foreign policy, trade and the economy, defence, military technology, and migration, as well as interparliamentary, interregional, cultural, humanitarian, and other spheres.

A variety of joint programmes and projects in security, healthcare, scientific and technical research, and other spheres are implemented annually at the expense of the Union State budget, which will amount to over 7 billion Russian roubles in 2025.

The current state and prospects for the union building come under review during meetings of the Union State Supreme State Council. Its most recent meeting chaired by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko was held in Minsk on December 6, 2024. They are also discussed during the meetings of the Union State Council of Ministers (the last meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was held in Minsk on November 5, 2024), and the High Level Group of the Union State Council of Ministers (the most recent meeting co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexey Overchuk and Head of the Belarus President Administration Dmitry Krutoi was held in Smolensk on May 28, 2025). A working group on implementing provisions of the Treaty on the Creation of the Union State co-chaired by Alexey Overchuk and First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Nikolai Snopkov tasked with drafting proposals concerning further integration within the Union State has been functioning since 2019.

Acceleration of integration processes in almost all spheres was facilitated by approval by the Supreme State Council of the Union State at a meeting in St Petersburg on January 29, 2024 of the Basic Guidelines for Implementing the Provisions of the Treaty on the Creation of the Union State for 2024-2026. This policy paper includes 11 sections and 120 goals (macroeconomic policy, statistics, common financial market, coordinated taxation policy, cooperation in the customs sphere, common industrial and agricultural policy, united energy markets, operation of nuclear energy facilities, united transport system, common information space, cultural and humanitarian, scientific and technological, and social spheres). In pursuance of the document, the parties approved 31 sector-specific action plans, which include 310 integration goals (as of May, 101, or almost one third, have been achieved).

Political exchanges at the top level are of substantial nature. In 2024, the presidents of Russia and Belarus held 11 meetings and 12 telephone conversations. Twelve telephone conversations and three meetings have taken place so far this year. On March 13-15, President Lukashenko paid an official visit to Russia; on April 29, the Belarusian leader visited Volgograd to hold talks with President Putin and to take part in the Union State’s international patriotic forum Great Heritage - Common Future; on May 9, he attended the Victory Parade in Moscow.

Prime ministers, chairmen of parliamentary chambers, deputy prime ministers, and respective Security Council secretaries, as well as heads of line agencies maintain regular contacts.

Foreign ministries of Russia and Belarus interact regularly.

On June 24-25, 2024, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov paid an official visit to Minsk to hold talks with President Alexander Lukashenko and the Belarusian Foreign Minister. On June 27, 2024, Maxim Ryzhenkov was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. His first meeting with Sergey Lavrov took place during the SCO summit in Astana on July 3-4, 2024, where Belarus became a full member of the Organisation. In September 2024, meetings were held on the sidelines of the 79th UNGA session in New York, then on October 7 within the framework of the CIS Council of Ministers in Moscow, and on October 22-24 during the BRICS summit in Kazan, and on November 21-22 in Brest at a joint meeting of the Foreign Ministry boards. Sergey Lavrov led the Russian delegation at the 2nd International Conference on Eurasian Security on October 31-November 1, 2024. In 2025, the foreign ministers had two telephone conversations.

Both countries have overlapping or close positions on almost all international issues. They cooperate closely in the CSTO, the EAEU, the CIS, the UN, and the OSCE, as well as other international and regional organisations, and jointly promote initiatives that are important for both countries. Since 2000, in order to align the agendas, the Russian and Belarusian foreign ministries have been holding annual joint meetings of the boards of the Russian and Belarusian foreign ministries and inter-ministerial consultations at the level of deputy ministers and heads of corresponding departments, which are effective mechanisms for synchronising the two countries’ efforts in the international arena.

Amid the sanctions war unleashed by the collective West, Russia and Belarus are taking joint steps aimed at countering unilateral restrictions and fortifying the financial, economic, and technological sovereignty of the Union State, advancing industrial cooperation, and successfully implementing import substitution programmes by way of launching joint investment projects, among other avenues.

The western borders of the Union State and the CSTO are reliably protected by the joint regional grouping of troops (forces) deployed in Belarus, and a barrier has been created against the collective forces of NATO, whose military potential in the neighbouring countries is growing.

The parliamentary dimension is important for advancing bilateral relations. The parliamentarians of Russia and Belarus are cooperating on international platforms to promote common interests and initiatives. Sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia are held twice a year alternately in the two countries. On December 12, 2024, its 67th session was held in Moscow, and the 68th session to be chaired by Vyacheslav Volodin will take place in Brest, Belarus, on June 16 and adopt, among other things, the Union State budget. The Parliamentary Assembly has a Youth Chamber consisting of 40 representatives delegated equally by the parliaments of the two countries, and the young people take part in advancing the Union State’s agenda.

Delegations from the two countries regularly hold talks at various inter-parliamentary forums.

Region-to-region cooperation is important and promotes trade and economic, as well as cultural and humanitarian ties between our countries. More than 80 constituent entities of the Russian Federation maintain stable relations with Belarus. The legal and contractual framework is expanding. As of January 17, 2025, the Russian Ministry of Justice’s register of international agreements showed there were 239 cooperation agreements concluded by the administrations of the Russian regions with the Belarusian government and agencies, as well as regional and municipal executive committees. The cooperation is facilitated by forums of the Russian and Belarusian regions that have been convened by the upper chambers of the parliaments of the two countries since 2014.

On June 27-28, 2024, the 11th forum of the regions of the two countries attended by about 1,000 delegates was held in Vitebsk and Polotsk, Belarus. During the event, 251 documents on cooperation in various spheres worth 30 billion roubles were signed. The next 12th forum of the regions of Russia and Belarus titled “Youth of Belarus and Russia: Heirs of the Great Victory and the future of the Union State” will be held in Nizhny Novgorod on June 25-27.

Over the past two years, Russia has steadily accounted for more than half of Belarus’ foreign trade in goods. Belarus is our main trading partner in the CIS and the fourth largest trading partner in the world. Belarus accounts for almost 10 percent of our foreign trade. As of late 2024, the trade grew by 5.7 percent on 2023 to $50.1 billion. Russia’s exports amounted to $24.8 billion (up 5.9 percent), and imports from Belarus amounted to $25.3 billion (up 5.4 percent). The positive dynamics continued unabated in the first quarter of 2025. In January-March, mutual trade grew by another 3 percent compared to the same period in 2024 and amounted to 1.06 trillion roubles, or $11.4 billion. Our exports to Belarus amounted to $5.6 billion (up 5.4 percent), and Russian imports from Belarus increased by 0.7 percent to $5.8 billion.

Cultural and humanitarian ties are making great strides, including through direct contacts between educational, scientific, cultural, and sports institutions, as well as public organisations of the two countries, and also within the framework of interagency and interregional cooperation programmes. Culture days, tours by famous performance groups and entertainers, and theatre and music festivals, such as Youth for the Union State, are often financed from the Union State budget and are held on a regular basis. Russian and Belarusian cities hold annual thematic cultural events dedicated to the Day of Unity of the Peoples of Russia and Belarus that is marked on April 2.

The International Arts Festival, Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk, and Union State Day held on its margins bring our peoples closer culturally. Talented Russians and Belarusians are presented with Union State prizes for their contributions to promoting literature and art, as well as science and technology.

In 2024, the Days of Culture of Belarus in Russia (September 26-28) and the Days of Spiritual Culture of Russia in Belarus (May 15-18) were held.

The visit of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to Belarus on June 4-6 gave a powerful boost to the further strengthening of religious unity. The Patriarch was hosted by President Alexander Lukashenko and also held a divine liturgy and a festive prayer service in Polotsk in honour of the 900th anniversary of the founding of the Orthodox Women’s Spaso-Euphrosyne Stavropigial Monastery.

Traditionally, great importance is attached to preserving historical memory and popularisation of common history among the peoples of our countries. Special attention is paid to celebrating Victory Day, on which Belarus Remembers and Immortal Regiment marches are organised, and Candle of Memory, Train of Memory, and Garden of Memory drives are held, and flowers are laid at the memorials to heroes of the Great Patriotic War.

It is no exaggeration to say that relations between Russia and Belarus can serve as a model of building equal and mutually beneficial cooperation between countries, and the level of interaction within the Union State is a benchmark for other integration associations in the post-Soviet space.