Moldovan PM Vasile Tarlev travel to Belarus on two-day visit

Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev traveled to Belarus on Wednesday for a two-day visit that he hopes will strengthen economic and political ties between the two former Soviet republics.

Tarlev will participate in a meeting of Belarus and Moldovan trade officials in Minsk where the two countries will sign trade agreements, the Moldovan government said in a statement. He will also visit factories making tractors, buses and refrigerators and hold talks with President Alexander Lukashenko and Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky.

Relations with traditional trade partner Russia have cooled after Moldova's leadership decided to ally itself with the West, and Moldova is searching to develop markets for its wine and agricultural produce.

Moldova imports tractors and road-building tools from Belarus, reports the AP. I.L.