Islamabad (GNP): The 9th Session of the Pakistan-Belarus Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) on Trade and Economic Cooperation is taking place in Islamabad, with a 19-member Belarusian delegation led by Minister of Energy Dzianis Maroz arriving in the capital for the event.
A technical session held earlier covered discussions on trade, industry, agriculture, banking, labor, transport, and IT cooperation between the two countries.
Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan and Maroz are set to co-chair the ministerial-level session, which will include formal addresses and bilateral talks, concluding with the signing of the JMC protocol and a memorandum of understanding.
This session follows the 8th Pakistan-Belarus JMC, held earlier in Minsk and led by Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan on the Pakistani side and then-Energy Minister Alexey Kushnarenko for Belarus. Notably, that session took place just four months after the previous one, reflecting an accelerated pace of bilateral engagement, with discussions covering several key areas of economic cooperation.
During that meeting, both countries agreed to strengthen cooperation on labor migration and workforce mobility, committing to finalize agreements supporting skilled labor exchange.
On the industrial front, progress was noted on joint projects including energy-efficient tractors and electric buses, with plans to expand collaboration between Pakistan’s Heavy Industries Taxila and Belarus’s MTW in agricultural machinery and industrial equipment.
Agricultural cooperation is set to focus on seed production, livestock, and fisheries, with both countries committing to boosting food security and trade.
In healthcare, discussions covered potential collaboration in pharmaceutical production and regulatory training, including facilitating registration of Belarusian veterinary products in Pakistan.
Additional agreements covered vocational training cooperation between Pakistan’s NAVTTC and Belarus’s RIPO, scientific collaboration between the two countries’ national science academies, and environmental sustainability initiatives, including a planned action plan to be signed during an upcoming visit by Pakistan’s prime minister.
Belarus also agreed to host a delegation from Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority to explore cooperation on firefighting and rescue equipment.
Further areas of cooperation included media collaboration between Belarus’s national broadcaster and Pakistan Television, tourism promotion, and sports-related exchange, along with discussions on establishing correspondent banking arrangements to support bilateral trade.
On the sidelines of the earlier session, the Pakistani delegation also held separate meetings with senior Belarusian officials, including the energy minister, the first deputy foreign minister, and the deputy minister of agriculture and food.
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The 9th JMC session, now underway in Islamabad, builds on this foundation of expanding bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
Sohail Majeed is a Special Correspondent at The Diplomatic Insight. He has twelve plus years of experience in journalism & reporting. He covers International Affairs, Diplomacy, UN, Sports, Climate Change, Economy, Technology, and Health.
