MOSCOW, 23 May (BelTA) – Belarus has suggested that Russia should extend the new Minsk-Polotsk motorway up to Saint Petersburg. The initiative was put forward during the session of the joint commission on advancing Belarus' cooperation with Russia's Leningrad Oblast on 23 May, the press service of the Belarusian embassy in the Russian Federation told BelTA.
During the session the Belarusian side told the Russian side that work had begun to build the Minsk-Polotsk motorway. Extending the motorway to Saint Petersburg across Leningrad Oblast could create new prospects for expanding cooperation with the Russian region.
“It could be a new joint project named, for instance, Flax Road similarly to the famous Silk Road,” Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia Igor Petrishenko said during the session.
BelTA reported earlier that First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vasily Matyushevsky met with Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko and the seventh session of the joint commission on advancing Belarus' cooperation with Leningrad Oblast took place the day before the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum began. The relevant protocol was signed as well as a program to guide trade, economic, social and humanitarian cooperation between the Belarusian government and the Leningrad Oblast government in 2018-2020.
