Serbia, Belarus set to increase economic cooperation

Trade between Serbia and Belarus quadrupled since last year and its value now exceeds 200 million U.S. dollars with the potential to rise even more, visiting Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday.
In a joint press conference after meeting with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, the two leaders agreed that economic relations between Serbia and Belarus were expanding, especially in areas of mechanical engineering, agriculture, transport, energy, as well as food and wood processing.
"Economic cooperation is the foundation of relations between our two countries. The value of exchanged goods rose four times since Nikolic visited Minsk (in March 2013). Our aim is to increase it to 500 million U.S. dollars," said Lukashenko.
He underlined there were several Belarus-Serbian joint companies and that his country was ready to establish more of them in order to employ workers from both countries and export products such as tractors, trucks and buses to third markets.
A joint statement signed by both presidents stressed their countries' will to respect international law and the goals of the United Nations to continue cooperation.