Minsk and Beijing conclude agreement on twinning — signed by the mayors of Minsk and Beijing

Minsk and Beijing conclude agreement on twinning — signed by the mayors of Minsk and Beijing: Andrey Shorets and Wang Anshun in the Chinese capital

Mr. Shorets expressed confidence that the agreement will help both cities reach a new level of co-operation. “Primarily, this applies to our economic links. We considered several aspects of the operation of Belarusian companies on the Beijing market: in the areas of medicine, food, engineering, and culture. We also discussed the exchange of educational programmes, scholarships, teaching our students the Chinese language and Chinese students Russian and Belarusian languages. The main area of co-operation is tourism,” he said.

For his part, Mr. Anshun stressed that the agreement will contribute to the development of friendship between the cities and people. According to him, the visit of China’s President to Belarus last year was an incentive for bolstering ties between the nations. The leaders reached a series of agreements to strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership and promote trade and investment co-operation. “Belarus is a bridge between Europe and Asia. The agreement that we signed will give impetus not only to the development of relations between the two countries or two capitals. This agreement will help implement the international initiative — One Belt, One Road — which was put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping,” Mr. Anshun noted.

MT REFERENCE:

In 2015, trade between Minsk and Beijing totalled $800m. There are 45 enterprises with Chinese capital in the Belarusian capital and joint investment projects are successfully being realised. The largest and most famous example of co-operation is the construction of the Beijing Hotel.