BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/05/2009

Belarusian department to open in 2009 at Ukrainian university under deal between Yushchenko and Lukashenko

Interfax-Ukraine

Belarusian department to open in 2009 at Ukrainian university under deal between Yushchenko and Lukashenko

The Ukrainian and Belarusian Presidents, Viktor Yushchenko and Alexander Lukashenko, have agreed on the opening of a Belarusian department at a Ukrainian university in 2009, the press service of the Ukrainian president reported on Wednesday.

"We gave full attention to the area of humanities. There are no problems [in this area]. : I discussed with Alexander Grigoryevych [Lukashenko] our possible activities in the educational field," Yushchenko said after Ukrainian-Belarusian talks in Gomel on Wednesday.

According to Yushchenko, the parties agreed, in particular, on the need to open in 2009 a Belarusian department at a Ukrainian university.

"Probably, we are talking about [Kyiv's] Shevchenko university, or maybe it will be some other Ukrainian university. We want to stress that we respect the Belarusian community in Ukraine, which wants to retain its language, culture, and history:" the Ukrainian president added.

"We assert today that there are no serious problems in relations between us," Yuschenko said.

"We deeply respect at the national level the links that were established historically between the Ukrainian and Belarusian people. We talked a great deal about this. I'm sure we have a great heritage and pleasant traditions. And both presidents stressed that it is our function to continue these traditions today," Yushchenko added.

Belarusian President Lukashenko said, in turn: "I'm very thankful to the president [of Ukraine] for his initiatives in the humanities. :It was Viktor Andriyovych [Yuschenko], who proposed this initiative, and we really do need it very much. It is a good signal for our society, it shows that we are really close, we know each other's history well and we value it. We will proceed on this basis in the near future."

Lukashenko also thanked Yushchenko and the members of Ukrainian delegation for their visit to Gomel, which he said was "a home town for Ukrainians, where Ukrainian is spoken a lot."

"We will always be glad to see you in any part of our Belarus," Lukashenko added.

"Your policy regarding Belarus, and your tactful, very reasonable and intelligent activities related to Belarus, are producing good results now. I'm very thankful to you for this," Lukashenko said.

Source:

http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/41093

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