4 June 2020
June 4th, the Russian-Belarusian conference "Russia and Belarus: After the Pandemic" unfolded online. The event was organized by the A.Gromyko Association for Foreign Policy Studies with the support of the Standing Committee of the Russian Union State.
The meeting dealt with issues related to the current state and future prospects of the Russian-Belarusian integration project. Over a hundred officials, diplomats, businessmen, international experts and public figures from Russia and Belarus participated in the event. Among the speakers at the conference were the Director of the Institute of Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the A.Gromyko Association for Foreign Policy Studies, State Secretary of the Union State G.Rapota, the President of the Russian Council for International Affairs I.Ivanov, the Ambassador of Russia to Belarus D.Mezentsev, the Ambassador of Belarus to Russia V.Semashko and the Co-chair of the A.Gromyko Association for Foreign Policy Studies S.Rakhmanin.
MGIMO’s Vice-Rector for Scientific Affairs Professor E.Kozhokin spoke about the benefits of performing joint Russian-Belarusian research on the European Union, its geographical and economic specificities, the demographic consequences of being a member of the EU for countries such as Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The speaker also noted that some of the innovations and new features related to distant work in business, education, medicine would be preserved after the pandemic and welcomed the suggestions made by the A.Gromyko Association for Foreign Policy Studies on developing a dialogue between the civil societies of Russia and Belarus.
