During a visit of the Belarusian governmental delegation to France, the First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus, Vladimir Semashko, met with the Secretary-General of the Elysee Palace, Claude Gueant, with participation of the Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus, Valery Voronetsky and the Minister of State for European affairs of the French Foreign Ministry, Pierre Lellouche.

The meeting saw the exchange of views on different aspects of Belarus-France relationship and ended up in agreements seeking to intensify co-operation between the two countries, including the framework of the Eastern Partnership initiative.

Vladimir Semashko also met with the CEOs of a number of major French businesses and banks.

Alexander Pavlovsky, Ambassador of Belarus to France, and Michel Raineri, Ambassador of France to Belarus, signed an agreement between the governments of the two countries on co-operation in culture, education, science and mass media.

It sets out a legal framework for larger co-operation between Belarus and France in the areas mentioned above and seeks to encourage further strengthening of bilateral contacts to secure large-scale studies of historic and cultural heritage of each other.

Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Voronetsky met with the head of a France-Belarus friendship group in the French National Assembly to talk about inter-parliamentary dialogue and co-operation between Belarus and France within international organisations.

In a meeting with the leadership of Société Générale bank, there was an exchange of views about how financial and bank co-operation between Belarus and France could further unfold. In particular, the meeting focused on investment and financial co-operation, larger presence of Société Générale on the Belarusian market, its participation in privatisation processes in Belarus, training and expert exchange between financial and bank agencies of Belarus and France.

On 21 January, a plenary meeting is expected to take place in MEDEF headquarters with participation of major French businesses.