During a nationwide conference on teaching held on 27 August Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made a number of comments about the arrest of Pavel Durov, the co-founder of the Telegram messaging app, in France, BelTA has learned. The head of state raised the matter while talking about education. Many of those, who did not study well in school, are inclined to criticize the authorities by saying that things are better in the West, for instance, in France than in the home...

Belarusian delegation led by Natalya Kochanova, Chairperson of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus, has gone on an official visit to Uzbekistan, during which they will participate in the second Belarus-Uzbekistan Women's Business Forum, BelTA learned from the press service of the upper house of parliament. The Belarusian delegation, the majority of whom are businesswomen, will take part in the forum. The first day will feature six sections covering...

Pope Francis is regularly interested in how Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko is doing, outgoing Apostolic Nuncio to Belarus Ante Jozic said as he met with the Belarusian leader in Minsk on 22 August, BelTA has learned. The Vatican diplomat thanked for the high assessment of his work in Belarus. “Of course, I am an envoy of Pope Francis but everything I did here I was doing for your society. Not only for Catholics, not only for our Church, but for everyone. And I was very...

Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maksim Ryzhenkov held a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Palestine to the Republic of Belarus Ahmed Mohammed al-Madbuh, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The parties exchanged views on the state of affairs in the Middle East region and paid special attention to the prospects of normalization of the situation in the Gaza Strip. The parties also discussed cooperation...

About 6 million foreign tourists visited Belarus last year, BelTA learned from Deputy Chairman of the National Statistics Committee of Belarus Timofei Zhigarev at a press conference. Timofei Zhigarev said: “We survey tourism in Belarus every year. In 2023 our country welcomed about 6 million foreign guests from 150 countries, 12% up from 2022. The average bill makes up about $500.” Belarus has proper infrastructure for welcoming foreign guests. “They can enjoy comfortable...