Expert on how Belarus, Oman get to know each other

An article penned by President Aleksandr Lukashenko and titled Belarus and Oman: Traditions of Friendship in a Changing World was published on the Omandaily online portal. Experts consider the article that appeared simultaneously with the Belarusian leader’s working visit to Oman an excellent move for the Belarusian diplomacy: although our countries are similar in many ways, little is known about Belarus in the Sultanate of Oman. MP Aleksandr Shpakovsky talked to Alfa Radio about that in more detail.


“Belarus and Oman are both well-to-do countries with sizeable portions of middle class citizenry. We are quite close in population numbers: Oman has over 7 million people, Belarus – over 9 million. The sizes of our territories and our armies are also comparable,” explained the MP.  

Both Belarus and Oman are proponents of peaceful foreign policies. We have something Oman currently lacks: the industrial components our partners would be happy to invest into, considering their drive to diversify their economy away from hydrocarbons and into production.

Mr. Shpakovsky made a point that Belarus has all chances to develop ties with Oman further, despite some difficulties. The latter mostly mean the distance between the two countries and unfriendly actions of the collective West to block bank transactions.

“There are certain horizons we are set to expand together with Oman. Presently, our trade with the sultanate is insignificant and clearly not representative of our mutual potential. Even if we reach tens of millions of Dollars in trade, then, maybe, continue to 100 million, it would be a great result. We expect that the political trust and diplomatic foundation created by President Lukashenko with his visit will later be used by our businesses and their peers from Oman on a practical level in various co-operation projects,” he elaborated.

Entering the Omani market would not be easy, the expert cautioned. At the same time, there are already signs that Belarus will be able to do that.

“Oman’s political elites know perfectly well that the hydrocarbon age will come to an end sooner or later. Right now, the sultanate mostly exports oil, oil products, and natural gas, but there’s certainly a drive there to diversify their sources of GDP growth, create some new production positions in farming, etc. In that context, there’s a space for co-operation with the Republic of Belarus. Yes, companies from the UK, Japan, the UAE are already well-established there. They are Oman’s key economic partners when it comes to imports. However, they showed interest in Belarusisn farming products, including some competences very unusual for us, like equipment for making powdered camel milk. So, this area, along with farming, road-building, municipal machinery, is of great interest for Oman. They are keen on joint ventures, including tractor-making ones,” he added.

Belarus has never been a proponent of the comprador economy, with its only interest being to earn money in some country. Our approach is to grow together through joint development projects.