MINSK. July 4 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana and said he supports China's initiatives on settling the Ukraine crisis, the Belarusian presidential press service said on Thursday.
"I have noted down your initiatives that you are promoting in the SCO (global security, global development, global civilization, global artificial intelligence management - you have already noticed positive and negative things in artificial intelligence) - we fully support all your initiatives. Especially the main initiative, on the settlement of the Ukraine crisis. This initiative agrees with Brazil's initiative," Lukashenko said.
Xi Jinping congratulated Lukashenko on the receipt by Belarus of the status of a full-fledged member of the SCO. The Belarusian president visited China twice last year, he said. During the talks, the sides made plans to develop partnership.
"We will definitely promote further stable development of our relations," Xi Jinping said.
Lukashenko thanked the Chinese president for supporting Belarus on its path to SCO membership.
"I am very glad that you are becoming chair [China will chair the SCO in 2025], it means I will have another opportunity to visit the People's Republic of China next year," Lukashenko said.
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