On August 21-22, 2014, a delegation from Minsk (Republic of Belarus) has visited Murmansk. Minsk delegation includes representatives of the Minsk City Executive Committee, Minsk branch of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as a number of enterprises, including the Minsk Automobile Plant OJSC.
The most notable event is the signing on August 21 of an agreement on the establishment of twinning relations between the cities.
The consolidation of contacts between Murmansk and Minsk is historically justified. Belarusians took part in the construction of the railway, which later connected Petrozavodsk and Romanov-on-Murman in 1914-1916, in Soviet times, many served in our region, defended Murmansk in the Great Patriotic War, took part in the restoration of the city and the development of the Northern Sea Route
Today, the Murmansk region ranks seventh among Russian regions in terms of the number of Belarusians living here: there are about 12 thousand of them on the Kola Peninsula. In the city of Murmansk, according to the 2010 census, slightly less than 2% of the population of the city of Murmansk (about 5,000 people) were Belarusians, ranking third in terms of the ethnic composition of the population.
On August 21, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Minsk branch of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Northern Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In addition, on this day, within the framework of the city holiday "The northernmost bus with the warmth of Belarusian hearts", new buses manufactured by MAZ were presented to the residents of the city.
The program of the visit of Minsk delegation in Murmansk was full of business meetings and aimed at finding contacts for the further development of cooperation. Discussions took place on issues of inter-municipal cooperation, economic interaction between cities, development of transport infrastructure, holding joint congress and exhibition events, etc.
