The Republic of Belarus attaches a great importance to relations with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, considering this country as an important political partner.
Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Belarus and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland were established on January 27, 1992. Opened in London in July 1993 the Consulate General of Belarus was upgraded to an Embassy in June 1994. The first Ambassador of Belarus to the UK was Vladimir Senko. The British Embassy in Minsk is functioning since May 1993.
On February 8, 2007 the Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Aleksandr Mikhnevich presented his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II.
Following the establishment of diplomatic relations between Belarus and the UK quite an intensive political dialogue was created. There have been high-level Belarusian visitors to Britain in the past – Chairman of the Supreme Council in December, 1994 and Prime Minister in May, 1995.
An exchange of visits of heads of a number of ministries took place, and contacts at a municipal level were established. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was one of the first in the European Union to ratify the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Belarus and the EU on June 14, 1996.
There are certain divergences in approaches of Belarus and the UK to global and regional problems that restraining development of full-scale Belarus-British political dialogue at present. Nevertheless, due to the mutual interest of countries on variety of essentially important spheres, contacts at interdepartmental level are maintained; inter-regional communications, and also business cooperation of two countries are developing. Cooperation with British charitable organizations which render Chernobyl-related assistance to Belarus is also actively developing.
Despite certain difficulties in the political sphere, trade and economic relations between Belarus and the United Kingdom have been successively developing until recently. The United Kingdom is one of the biggest trade partners of Belarus.
On November 18, 2008 the first Belarus Investment Forum took place in London. The delegation headed by Belarus Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky visited London within the framework of the Forum.
