English

Interior ministries of Belarus, Russia hold joint board meeting in Mahilyow

The interior ministries of Belarus and Russia held a joint board meeting in Mahilyow on Saturday to discuss measures to increase public security in the adjoining border areas and step up cooperation in preventing the illegal movement of goods and vehicles, BelaPAN said.

It is necessary to “preserve and enhance the potential of cooperation,” Belarusian Interior Minister Anatol Kulyashow said in his opening address. He noted that the meeting was a good opportunity to “critically review the shortcomings that exist in cooperation between the two countries with regard to ensuring public security.”

Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev offered condolences to the Belarusian people over the deadly bomb attack in the Minsk subway on April 11.

The free movement of goods and visa-free travel between the two countries are conducive to the development of relations, but criminals may take advantage of these circumstances, Mr. Nurgaliyew noted, adding that arms, drugs and illegal migrants might move across the transparent border. Owing to this, he said, the police departments of the adjoining regions of Russia and Belarus have signed and are implementing cooperation plans.

Pyotr Rudnik, head of the Mahilyow Regional Executive Committee, noted that seven districts in the Mahilyow region border on Russia, and that the crime rate in the region was on the decline, in many respects thanks to cooperation with the police in the neighboring Russian regions.

As Mr. Nurgaliyew told reporters in Mahilyow following the meeting, a new joint “security corridor” may be established along the motor highway that runs from Belarus’ Brest and Russia’s Oryol (Orel) through Pinsk, Mazyr, Homyel and Bryansk in addition to the existing security corridor along the Brest-Moscow highway.

An agreement was reached to regularly conduct joint inspections of shipments and vehicles on roads in border areas.

A joint exercise is expected to be held on the Brest-Moscow highway near Russia’s Smolensk later this year for police units engaged in state property protection.

The ministries also agreed to increase cooperation in preventing manifestations of extremism and terrorism in the two countries.

The ministries are to hold their next joint board meeting in Petrozavodsk, Russia, this summer.