April 2 is Belarus and Russia Peoples Unity Day

The Day of Unity of the Peoples of Belarus and Russia is celebrated annually on April 2. On this day in 1996, an agreement was signed between the states on the formation of the Community of Russia and Belarus. A year later, on April 2, 1997, an agreement was signed on forming the Union of Russia and Belarus. These events impetus the mutual integration of friendly countries.

Belarus is Bashkiria's leading strategic partner. Thousands of threads, economic and cultural relationships, and human contacts connect us.

“Our peoples have a long-standing historical, spiritual, and human closeness to each other. We have a similar history, traditions, and way of thinking. Of course, we must cooperate and move forward,” said the Head of Bashkiria, Radiy Khabirov, at the opening of the international forum “Belarus - Bashkortostan” in Minsk.

As time has shown, about 2 thousand kilometers separating Bashkiria and Belarus is not an obstacle to cooperation, especially since we have many joint projects. Here are just a few examples.

Regarding industrial cooperation in Bashkiria, a Bashkir-Belarusian industrial and investment cluster is planned to be created. In October 2023, a plant of the Belarusian holding Amkodor was launched in Bashkiria to produce equipment for post-harvest grain processing - Amkodor-Agidel. The construction of a plant to make unique earth-moving equipment, "Amkodor-Alga," is underway. The project costs 8 billion rubles, and 600 jobs will be created here.

Cooperation in the field of agriculture is developing - strong agreements have been reached between the republics in the field of technical modernization. Our manufacturers successfully work with the Minsk Tractor and Motor Plants, the Gomselmash Plant, the Casting and Normal Plant, and Zapagromash LLC.

Foresters in Bashkiria are adopting the experience of their Belarusian colleagues in forest conservation. Our republic is famous for its green decoration; it is no coincidence that Belarusian bison feel at home here. In turn, specialists from Bashkiria are ready to help recreate the population of the dark forest bee, which was lost after the Great Patriotic War and has much in common with Bashkir bees. An agreement was concluded with the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nature Reserve to restore the bee population in Belarus based on breeding material from Bashkiria and genomic analysis from two laboratories.

Along with economic ones, transport connections are also developing. In particular, since March 2023, air flights Ufa - Minsk - Ufa have been carried out. The route is popular; last year, the average load of flights was 86%.

On the initiative of Radiy Khabirov, in 2023, the Republic of Belarus entered the project “Bashkir Longevity. Tourism". The amount of funding for tourist trips to Belarus for 2023, considering additional funding, amounted to 24.3 million rubles. In 2023, over 1,600 pensioners from Bashkiria visited the friendly country, and since the beginning of 2024, another 350 people.

Bashkiria cooperates closely with the Gomel region of Belarus. Companies from the two regions signed many agreements on the supply of products and the implementation of joint projects. As part of the Forum of Regions of Russia and Belarus, held in Ufa in June 2023, the parliaments of Bashkiria and the Gomel region entered a cooperation agreement. The government of Bashkortostan signed an agreement with the Gomel Regional Executive Committee to implement international and foreign economic relations in trade, economic, scientific, and technical fields, education, youth policy, and industry.

Chairman of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee Ivan Krupko congratulated the residents of Russia and Belarus on this significant holiday.

Earlier, Bashinform News Agency told us how Bashkiria and Belarus are getting closer. You can read more about how the Forum of Regions of Russia and Belarus took place here.

Author: Roman Yakimchuk