Development of cooperation among regions is main topic of dialogue between Presidents of 2 countries

12 октября 2018

The development of cooperation with the regions of Russia is one of the most important economic priorities of Belarus. The leaders of the two countries spoke about the possibilities of deepening integration during the plenary session of the V Forum of the regions of Belarus and Russia.

This time, a large-scale platform for political and economic dialogue gathered about three dozen leaders of Russian regions. The level of contact with them is confirmed by concrete facts. About 80 cooperation agreements have been signed between our country and key subjects of the Russian Federation. The volume of trade with these key partners is more than 70 percent of the trade turnover between the countries. Today one of the main tasks is to outline the main and breakthrough areas for further cooperation.

Before the plenary session, the Presidents held a bilateral meeting. Alexander Lukashenko warmly welcomed Vladimir Putin in Mogilev. Since the beginning of autumn this is the third, but not the last meeting of the leaders. Belarus and Russia will be represented at the highest level in the framework of international summits in Astana and Moscow.

Vladimir Putin thanked the head of the Belarusian state for the invitation, the substantive organization of joint work at the forum. The President of Russia is confident that the events and the results of meetings at the forum will be very useful.

The dialogue of the regions continues to prove its effectiveness. More than 70 new agreements were signed by mid-day. An agreement in principle was reached regarding the abolition of roaming between the two countries. Back in August, Belarus and Russia approved a roadmap to address this issue.

In general, it is expected that the total amount of the Belarusian-Russian contracts (after all the days of the Forum) will exceed half a billion dollars.