Russian - Flemish Work Programme signed

  • December 4, 2015
ondertekening

December 3rd, Ambassador Alexander Romanov and secretary general Koen Verlaeckt signed the Russian - Flemish work programme on education, science and culture 2015-2017.

The political tensions between Europe and Russia were given the necessary (media) attention, but still Flanders and Russia can look back on many years of a very fruitful cooperation in the fields of education, science and culture. Last year Flemish universities received  over  400 Russian students and several hundred participated in short specific courses. There’s also a close co-operation with museums such as the world-famous Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

During the meeting they also discussed economic relations between both countries. Despite economic sanctions, trade and investment relations are still significant. The Flemish and the Russian government will continue this conversation during the economic talks between our country, Luxembourg and Russia planned for February 2016 in Sochi.

This meeting of the Joint Committee Russia - Flanders was the first held since 2008, but in order to perpetuate the renewal of contacts, Ambassador Romanov proposed to continue the talks next year in Moscow. In turn, Flanders hopes to welcome the Russian Minister of Education to the education conference of the Council of Europe to be held in April 2016 in Brussels.