On May 26, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. New opportunities for the development and interaction of border regions of Belarus and Russia as an object of complex scientific research will be considered at an international scientific and practical conference at Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov on May 27, the head of the Department of Philosophy, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, Associate Professor Edvard Rudkovsky told a BELTA correspondent. More than 100 scientists and specialists from Belarusian universities, research centers, and educational institutions from five regions of Russia, including those sharing a border with the Vitebsk region, have shown interest in the topic of the scientific forum. Vitebsk State University is addressing the issue of cross-border cooperation for the first time, therefore the main goals of the conference are to summarize and systematize the scientific, theoretical, and practical experience of scientists involved in cross-border cooperation issues, and to expand contacts and interaction between universities of the two countries. During the event, historical traditions and the experience of regional interaction in the past, as well as issues of self-identification of the border population will be considered. Conference participants will discuss the place and role of border regions in the development of cooperation between countries and peoples as a whole, and in the integration processes of Belarus and Russia. A separate block of presentations will be dedicated to discussing cooperation in the economic and tourism sectors, the development of interaction in the field of regional governance and self-governance, the intensification of cooperation in the scientific, educational, and cultural spheres, and environmental protection. In addition, one of the expert platforms of the forum will be devoted to the dialogue and interpenetration of cultures in the border areas, and another section will focus on the issues of language convergence and divergence in border territories, as well as bilingualism. The conference is organized by the Ministry of Education, the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research, and Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov.-0-

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