Lukashenko and Ahmadinejad Are Twin-Brothers?

(Belarus and Iran Military Ties Are Forever!)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived to Minsk with official two days visit on May 21, 2007. As expected a number of bilateral cooperation topics will be discussed and some trade agreements will be signed.

Belarus expects to conclude contracts for exporting metal products, agricultural equipment, equipment for oil and energy spheres. Deliveries to Iran are extremely important for Belarus, which has negative balance of foreign trade and problems with sales of its products. Also two countries will discuss a project of construction in a free economic zone "Minsk" of a trade and logistics complex Prylesye which cost is about
100 million dollars. In addition, new stages of the Belarusian-Iranian project for assembling Iranian cars Samand are to be developed further. Finally, Teheran is set to help Belarus in solving the most essential problem for today, diversification of oils deliveries.

Besides the talks, International exhibition of arms and military equipment "Milex-2007" has opened in Minsk on Tuesday, May 22, 2007. The exhibition took place in Minsk on May 22-25 in the National exhibition center "Belexpo". 135 exhibitors from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Sweden took part in the event. For sure, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a chance to visit the exhibition during his two-day stay in Minsk.

Defense Ministers of Sudan, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, are expected to arrive to the exhibition. Visits of the commanding officer of the General Staff of the United Arab Emirates and a deputy commanding officer of the General Staff of Syria are to arrive. Official delegations of about 50 countries worldwide were invited to attend the 4th international exhibition of arms and military equipment MILEX 2007, including regional of South Eastern Asia, Africa and Latin America. According to experts, Ahmadinejad could be interested primarily by air defense facilities. Though Iran announce many times about not expecting air threat from the US.

A deputy director of Russian Federal service on military-industrial cooperation Vladimir Poleschuk has confirmed his participation in the exhibition. Delegations of enterprises from Azerbaijan, China, Russia, Poland and Ukraine and other countries have confirmed participation as well. Besides, the exhibition is to be visited by military attaché accredited in Belarus.

Belarus - Iran Happy Military Ties & Cooperation

(Hey, world, you better watch out!)

This week, on Monday, January 22, 2007 President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has met Leonid Maltsev, the Defense Minister of Belarus. During the meeting, Ahmadinejad said that the two states share identical views about regional and global issues, and voiced Tehran's support for the expansion and development of ties and cooperation with Minsk in ALL areas.

Then following their second round of talks, Iranian and Belarusian Defense Ministers signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of defense. Exchange of expert delegations, technical and training cooperation, continued dialogues and consultations at the level of the two countries defense ministers are among the topics touched in the agreement.

"As far as the visit itself is concerned, any issue may be discussed there. Most likely, it may be air-defense devices, their electronic "filling" and possible maintenance service of the missile complexes, supplied by Russia, because corresponding specialists are available in Belarus and the Belarusian services will be cheaper than the Russian ones. It can't be excluded that the nuclear program is under discussion. Creation of nuclear weapons is unlikely to be the direct subject of the discussion but the so-called "double-purpose" technologies are most likely to be discussed with Iran. The fact that it has been done on the sly and not covered by the state media does witness the possibility of military-purpose technologies transfer to Iran", considers Andrei Sannikov, former deputy minister for foreign affairs of Belarus, international coordinator of the Charter'97.

Also Andrei Sannikov reminded that at present the issue of Iran's nuclear programs is seriously treated by the Security Council of the UNO and, consequently, all contracts of Iran with military and technology agencies of other countries are under strict attention.

Meantime in Brussels European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to apply U.N. sanctions on Iran "in full and without delay" and if necessary go further than a U.N. list in targeting those linked to Tehran's nuclear work. EU has approved the support of the UN Security Council Resolution #1737 (dated December 23, 2006).

Nevertheless on Monday, Jan. 22, 2007 Iran said has barred 38 members of a U.N. nuclear inspection team from entering the country and announced new tests of short-range Zalzal and Fajr-5 missiles planned this Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007.

Belarus Foreign Policy: wrong place, wrong time.

Belarusian & Iranian Dictatorships Are United in International Isolation

(It's Easier to Sell Weapons of Mass Destruction This Way)

Belarusian so called President Aleksandr Lukashenko arrived in Tehran late on November 5, 2006 for two days of talks with Iranian officials. The visit is aimed at bolstering official relations and advancing large-scale economic projects. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinead expressed hope today that the visit to Tehran marks a "turning point" in bilateral ties. Ahmadinejad described Iran and Belarus as "independent and powerful" states and said they enjoy good ties in a number of areas. Both sides held a first of round of talks. Iran's official news agency, IRNA, reports that bilateral relations and key regional and international developments are among the main topics. Iran has expanded its ties in recent years with an impoverished former Soviet republic that many in the West describe as Europe's last dictatorship. Observers say both countries are seeking support in the face of increasing international isolation.

Meantime the nongovernmental corruption watchdog Transparency International released its annual "Corruption Perceptions Index". Belarus has taken the 151st position out of 163. This 151st position is shared with Uzbekistan. It's the worst position among all countries of the former USSR. To compare with, Ukraine takes 99th position, and Russia 121st.

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has a scale of zero to 10. According to TI ranking, zero indicates high levels of perceived corruption while 10 indicates the opposite. At the top of the list are Finland, Iceland, and New Zealand with 9.6 points, while Belarus has 2.1 points. Haiti takes the last 163rd position with 1.8 points.

Also, for the second year in a row Belarus is blacklisted as "an enemy of the Internet". The list is created based on monitoring by journalists' rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF). This year there are 13 countries in the blacklist. They are: Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Myanmar, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. As radio Svaboda informs, in this sad hit-parade Europe is represented by the only country, Belarus.

According to the monitoring of the RSF, government crackdowns on the Internet and its users violate the right of citizens for free access to information. In all Belarusian internet-cafés a special program for logging information about users' activities is used by the only government internet-provider "Beltelecom".