By IRNA
Kursk, Central Russia : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived for a working visit in Kursk, Central Russia, on Tuesday, Itar Tass reported.
The Governor of the Kursk region Alexander Mikhailov met Lavrov at the airport. On Wednesday, December 26, the governor will chair a meeting of the heads of Russia’s border regions. They will discuss prospects for expanding border and inter-regional economic ties taking the so- called euro-regions model as an example. One such European region is called Yaroslavna.
Russia’s Kursk region and the Sumy region in Ukraine have been developing trade and economic ties and implementing joint economic, humanitarian and cultural projects since an agreement on setting up the Yaroslavna euro-region was signed in May 2007.
“Kursk has been chosen as the venue for the meeting because the Governor of the Kursk region Alexander Mikhailov actively participates in cooperation within the framework of the Council of the heads of Russian territories and regions. He is one of the staunchest advocates of this process. We gladly accepted his invitation when we received it,” the Russian foreign minister told reporters upon his arrival in Kursk. He added that other members of the Council of the heads of Russian regions and territories had also supported Mikhailov’s proposals.
Governor Mikhailov says that euro-regions is a qualitatively new phenomenon which makes it possible to discuss problems with neighbours in the interests of regions, their economic agents and residents.
Leonid Shornikov, the deputy head of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, has also arrived in Kursk. He has visited the Kursk Arc war memorial and laid wreaths at a monument to Marshal Georgy Zhukov and the Eternal Fire.