On March 29, Novopolotsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Twelve partnership agreements were concluded today at the first Belarusian-Latvian Forum of Twin Cities "Prospects for the Development of Belarusian-Latvian Regional and Twin City Cooperation" in Novopolotsk, a BELTA correspondent reports. Representatives of ten local authorities from the following regions of Belarus and Latvia documented their intentions to develop partnerships and establish twin city ties during the forum's plenary session: Uzda District Executive Committee and Grobiņa Municipality, Slonim District Executive Committee and Ogre Municipality, Svisloch District Executive Committee and Rundāle Municipality, Luninets District Executive Committee and Limbaži Municipality, Vileyka Executive Committee and Līvāni City Council, Pukhovichi District Executive Committee and Kārsava Municipality, Tolochin District Executive Committee and Zilupe Municipality, Logoisk District Executive Committee and Madona Municipality, Bobruisk City Executive Committee and Daugavpils City Council, Glubokoe District Executive Committee and Līvāni Municipality. As clarified at the Novopolotsk City Executive Committee, later, outside the official ceremony, similar agreements were signed by representatives of the Baranovichi District Executive Committee and Jelgava Municipality, as well as Stolin District Executive Committee and Ikšķile Municipality. Another part of the agreements on establishing partnership ties will be signed in the near future during visits of representatives of Belarusian city and district authorities to Latvian regions. "The overall result of the Belarusian-Latvian Forum of Twin Cities will be the conclusion of about two dozen such agreements," said the Ambassador of Belarus to Latvia, Alexander Gerasimenko, in a conversation with journalists, noting that this is an internal need for communication at the people's level. "When we sent out invitations to participate in the forum, almost all of the more than one hundred Latvian municipalities responded and asked us to find Belarusian partners for them. There was little time, but the result is obvious," the ambassador concluded. -0-

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