Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed cooperation deals during a visit to his counterpart in Equatorial Guinea on Saturday, as the isolated Kremlin ally seeks support from Africa during the war in Ukraine.
Lukashenko met Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Ngema Bashogo in the capital Malabo as part of an African tour to strengthen ties on the continent.
Agreements…
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed cooperation deals during a visit to his counterpart in Equatorial Guinea on Saturday, as the isolated Kremlin ally seeks support from Africa during the war in Ukraine.
Lukashenko met Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Ngema Bashogo in the capital Malabo as part of an African tour to strengthen ties on the continent.
Agreements were signed to launch the first phase of a regional center for the promotion of Belarusian products in the markets of central and west Africa, Lukashenko told the Belta news agency.
Projects in industry, education, health and agriculture are due to be completed by 2026 and have been studied for months by a joint committee chaired by the countries’ foreign ministers.
Dubbed “Europe’s last dictator”, Lukashenko has been in power for almost 30 years.
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Western countries have imposed sanctions on Belarus and isolated Lukashenko for his staunch support for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and crackdown on domestic dissent.
In an official visit to Minsk in September, the first by an Equatorial Guinean leader, Bashogo denounced the “dictation of Western multinationals,” picking up a common theme in the Kremlin’s rhetoric.
Bashogo, 81, has ruled the oil-rich Central African country with an iron fist for 44 years, a record for a current head of state other than monarchs.
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