Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko will make a landmark state visit to Tripoli next week for a meeting with Libyan leader Moammer Kadhafi, Belarus state television reported late Tuesday.
"Alexander Lukashenko will make a one-day visit to Tripoli on October 31 to meet his counterpart Moammer Kadhafi," the report said quoting presidential press secretary Nikolai Borisevich.
The channel also reported that Belarus planned to open an embassy in Tripoli in the near future and that Lukashenko had signed a decree Tuesday naming the ambassador as Alexander Derevyashko, former deputy head of the Customs Committee.
Lukashenko and Kadhafi plan to forge bilateral ties and sign cooperation accords on the protection of investments and the creation of a joint economic and trade commission, the report said.
Cooperation agreements in the education, science and cultural spheres will also be signed, the spokesman was quoted as saying.
The leader of the opposition United Peoples' Party, Anatoly Lebedko, blasted Lukashenko's plan to visit Libya.
"Libya, Iran and Iraq are his only possible partners because only dictators can accept him as an equal," Lebedko said.
"This is the result of Lukashenko's damaging national and foreign policies. Libya has a reputation for supporting international terrorism and any politician that upholds relations with that government cannot offer anything positive to his own country," Lebedko told AFP – MINSK (AFP)
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