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BREST, 14 March (BelTA) Representatives of the French Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur plan to visit Belarus, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of France Dominique Gazuy said after a meeting with Chairman of the Brest Oblast Executive Committee Anatoly Lis, BelTA has learned.

“Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur is interested in cooperation with Belarus. There is a direct air service between Minsk and Nice. Soon Minsk will host mayors, and regional councilors from the towns and cities located in Cote d'Azur. We will discuss tourism opportunities. The people who will come are the political leaders who have a certain clout in France,” Dominique Gazuy noted.

She noted that some cities of France and Belarus have maintained sister-city links since the times of the Soviet Union. But now they need the economic component. “I believe in cooperation between regions. It is easy to develop it with neighboring countries and tougher when there is distance. When we see that a region in France is interested in Belarus, we try to support this. We are working to open Belarus to French regions. For example, Lyon recently hosted the first Belarusian-French business forum. It was a quite interesting and large-scale event,” the diplomat said.

The joint Belarusian-French Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation plays an important role in the development of bilateral relations. Its first meeting was held in February 2015. “Now we are actively working on the second meeting of the commission which will be held in May in Paris. Prior to the meeting we will hold a French-Belarusian forum for French and Belarusian enterprises. A bilateral agreement on tourism development was signed at the meeting last year. There are a number of French companies that are interested in cooperation with the Republic of Belarus. They already have encountered some problems, have some questions. The commission will answer these questions, find solutions,” the Ambassador said.