BREST, 1 April (BelTA) – Brest Oblast and St. Petersburg are set to intensify cooperation across the board. Cooperation matters were discussed at a round-table session at the Brest Oblast Executive Committee, BelTA has learned.
A delegation of St. Petersburg is on a visit to Brest. On 31 March, the Russian guests toured a number of local enterprises and sports complexes, visited the Brest Hero Fortress Memorial Complex and laid flowers at the Eternal Flame. The St. Petersburg Song and Dance Theater Moroshka gave a concert in Brest, which was a gift to local residents for the Day of Unity of the Peoples of Belarus and Russia. A round-table session was held on 1 April to discuss priority areas of bilateral cooperation.
“We have very friendly relations and great partnerships with Brest Oblast. Krasnogvardeisky District of St. Petersburg, that is home to about half a million residents of the city, has a cooperation agreement with Brest Oblast. This cooperation is gaining momentum. We have come here to revisit the outcomes of our interaction and thrash out plans for the future. We arrived to a very warm welcome and we saw willingness to cooperate,” said First Deputy Chairman of the External Relations Committee of the St. Petersburg administration Sergei Markov.
The St. Petersburg delegation held several business meetings in Brest. “In particular, we have discussed the possibility to supply import-substituting component parts made by Brestmash Plant to our market. This idea holds a lot of promise. We agreed on specific actions to promote these products, as well as on holding meetings with our manufacturers,” noted Sergei Markov.
The parties seek to cooperate more closely in sports. Belarus is ready to provide its sports infrastructure for Russian athletes and suggests sharing best practices. Brest Oblast got interested in the proposal to hold training sessions and master classes, in particular, in diving.
All in all, during the session, representatives of Brest Oblast and St. Petersburg discussed interaction in economy, tourism, healthcare, education and patriotic upbringing. The parties intend to develop a cooperation roadmap for the Brest Oblast Executive Committee and Krasnogvardeisky District of Saint Petersburg for 2024-2028. “I think we will find common ground and this will be a win-win cooperation. We will definitely forward proposals from our enterprises. Twin city agreements might be concluded. We have some ideas, we will work on them in order to translate them into agreements in the future,” said Brest Oblast Deputy Governor Vadim Kravchuk.
Brest and St. Petersburg have great potential in tourism. “We are very optimistic about the prospects of our airport. Direct flights are convenient for both tourists and business people. We will give it a try. We are confident that the Brest-St. Petersburg flight would be just as popular as the Brest-Moscow flight,” added Vadim Kravchuk.
The parties are also discussing joint patriotic projects. They are taking on special significance in the year when Belarus marks the 80th anniversary of its liberation from the Nazi invaders. “We suggest carrying on what was started last year. A dozen of our teachers came to Belarus to teach lessons about courage, and we hosted Belarusian teachers in St. Petersburg. I think this is extremely important. We are ready to welcome schoolchildren from Brest to the Scarlet Sails festival. Krasnogvardeisky District is ready to act as a patron for Brest Oblast residents who would like to attend this wonderful festival of graduates,” Sergei Markov emphasized.