MINSK, August 16. /TASS/. Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Col. Gen. Li Shangfu will begin his three-day official visit to Belarus on Wednesday to discuss pressing issues of bilateral military cooperation with the country’s leaders and defense ministry officials.

He is also expected to visit a number of military facilities in the country.

Li Shangfu will travel to Belarus from Russia, where he participated in the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security. In his speech, the Chinese defense minister said that Beijing would continue to strengthen security cooperation mechanisms with its partners in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Belarus, which is aspiring to join the group.

Belarus signed the memorandum of commitment with the SCO, which paves the way for its full-fledged membership.

Li Shangfu’s visit to Belarus will be the first visit of a top Chinese defense official to the country over the past five years. His goal will be to strengthen military and defense cooperation between Beijing and Minsk, which views China as a priority partner in its foreign policy.

During the visit, Belarusian and Chinese defense officials will outline areas for near-term future cooperation and exchange opinions about the current security situation in the region and worldwide.

Li Shangfu’s previous meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Viktor Khrenin took place in April, on the sidelines of the SCO defense ministers’ meeting in New Delhi.

Longtime cooperation

Military cooperation between Belarus and China is based on a bilateral agreement, signed by the two defense ministries in May 2010. Before the novel coronavirus pandemic, the countries regularly organized high-ranking and expert-level visits, held joint training courses and exercises and held regular exchanges of military students. However, bilateral military cooperation was put on hold when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

During a meeting in Minsk in mid-April, Belarusian defense ministry officials discussed ways of boosting bilateral military cooperation in the post-pandemic period with the Chinese embassy’s defense attache, Senior Colonel Liu Zhe.