The report analyzes political and economic relations between the two countries in 2020-2022 and the main trends in official Belarusian rhetoric on the topic of bilateral relations.
In September 2022, at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan, Belarus and China adopted a Joint Declaration which ostensibly established an all-weather and comprehensive strategic partnership of the two countries. In both countries, officials, diplomats and the state press frequently voice optimistic assessments of Chinese-Belarusian relations, with little or no attention paid to problematic issues in their bilateral cooperation.
The study, produced by the EAST Center researchers thanks to the support of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Regional Office “Dialogue Eastern Europe”, reviews the key trends of recent years in political and economic relations between the two countries. It comes to the following conclusions:
● China has reduced credit and investment cooperation with Belarus in recent years, though both sides avoid publicly discussing negative events and trends in bilateral interactions.
● Minsk and Beijing continued active political cooperation, despite the stagnation of economic and investment cooperation, and China will maintain a political presence in Belarus.
● Current (geo)political events have negatively affected the development of the China-Belarus Industrial Park, but it remains a key joint project between the two countries.
● Official rhetoric and coverage of Belarusian-Chinese relations in the state press reflects the objective state of bilateral cooperation only to a small extent.
