MINSK, 26 February (BelTA) – Belarus and Poland are set to hold talks on permits for freight transportation in March. The decision was taken at a meeting of Belarus' Transport and Communications Minister Aleksei Avramenko with Poland's Minister of Infrastructure Andrzej Adamczyk, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry.
The parties discussed the issuance of permits for international transportation by road. “After the heated discussions of the permits system the parties decided to hold a meeting of the mixed commission at the level of deputy ministers in March 2020, where the final decisions will be taken,” the press service said.
The parties also discussed the construction of a new railway bridge across the Western Bug at the railway section of the Brest-Terespol border crossing. Poland can finance the project using the European Union funds. Belarus supported the financing scheme, adding that the issue needs to be considered at a working meeting of the heads of the railway agencies in the near future.
The agenda of the meeting also included the resumption of freight traffic through the Belarusian-Polish railroad border crossing Vysoko-Litovsk/Czeremcha. The issue will soon be discussed at the level of the Polish prime minister.
The parties talked over the implementation of the intergovernmental agreement on the construction of a road bridge across the Western Bug at the Domachevo-Slawatycze border crossing. The parties agreed to hold a working meeting in March to discuss all technical solutions. The need was also emphasized for a joint analysis of the state of infrastructure at the Belarusian-Polish border to identify further plans for cooperation.
During his visit to Poland, Aleksei Avramenko met with Lithuanian Minister of Transport and Communications Jaroslav Narkevic to discuss bilateral cooperation in the transport sector. The parties agreed to hold a working meeting in Vilnius in the near future.
The Belarusian minister also spoke at the Europe of the Carpathians Conference at the section Increasing Access to the Three Seas Area - Overcoming Infrastructure Obstacles. In his words, today the development of commodity and tourist markets sets new tasks for the world transporters in improving the quality of services and reducing transportation costs for commodity products. To address these issues, Belarus has been actively cooperating with many countries and their communities, participating, for example, in cross-border cooperation programs Poland-Belarus-Ukraine and Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus and discussions in the Eastern Partnership working groups.
