Opinions & Interviews

MOGILEV, 12 October (BelTA) – Belarus-Russia relations should reach a totally new level, Chairperson of the Federation Council the Russian Federal Assembly Valentina Matviyenko said as she met with governors of Belarusian and Russian regions on 12 October, BelTA has learned.

According to Valentina Matviyenko, the two countries amassed quite extensive experience of interregional cooperation; a series of agreements and treaties were signed by economic operators of the two states. Many documents will be signed on 12 October. “It is important to make them specific and to have feasible mechanisms to implement them. This will be your real contribution to the promotion of the Union State construction,” Valentina Matviyenko said.

She asked Russian governors to take Belarus-Russia relations under their personal control. Officials should start all their working days with that. “We need to make sure that Belarus-Russia relations will never lose momentum,” she emphasized.

“Starting from the next forum we should shift the focus from the number of agreements and treaties to the content of cooperation. We should also introduce a format of reports assessing our progress over a certain period of time and to spread information about positive experience of the bilateral cooperation,” Valentina Matviyenko said.

Chairman of the Council of the Republic Mikhail Myasnikovich added that the ongoing Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia is the most representative of all. It gathered delegates from 31 regions of the Russian Federation. All in all, over 2,000 people are taking part in it. “It means a lot to us, therefore we need to invest all our efforts to materialize our expectations and to make the forum a fruitful and efficient event,” Mikhail Myasnikovich said.

Following the meeting, a number of regions of Belarus and Russia signed agreements on cooperation in trade, economy, science, technology and culture.