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what do you need to know? belarus gave new impetus to the development of the shanghai cooperation organization, although it joined it less than a week ago. one of them is the slavic bazaar, where the ministers of culture of the sco member countries gathered today. the shanghai family has already discussed.

because today belarus for the first time under its cornflower blue sky welcomes high official delegations of the shanghai cooperation organization, look, right now we are joining the beautiful belarusian tradition here on victory square, official delegations and their representatives are taking ribbons with their ornaments right now so that...

the fate of the festival, which has become an entire era, is not indifferent. the president noted that no matter how someone tries to drown out and downplay the significance of our slavic bazaar, nothing works. it thunders throughout the entire planet. alexander lukashenko emphasized that the slavic soul is limitless in its openness to the world, so the festival has long gone beyond the geographical boundaries of the slavic brotherhood. here, on the picturesque bank of the dvena, 1050 years ago the first stone of the city was laid, which today we rightfully call our cultural capital. there is something in this corner of belarus that has been inspiring for centuries. creating masterpieces of fine art, unique architectural objects, great literary and musical works, as well as festivals, competitions, and many other creative projects. over the centuries

, a unique atmosphere has been created here, an atmosphere of creative search, an atmosphere of dialogue between civilizations. for centuries , trade routes intersected here, connecting east , west, north and south, this city gratefully absorbed new ideas and trends, developed due to this, and therefore the history of our forum began right here, in the city of world-famous people, whose professional path was through his workshops. vitebsk has become the creative homeland of real geniuses. according to tradition, alexander lukashenko presented a special award from the festival to mutual understanding through art. the winner was people's artist of russia, grigory lep. the union state prizes in the field

of literature and art for 2023-24 were also awarded to people who made a significant contribution to strengthening friendship between the peoples of belarus and russia. this is the representative of uzbekistan yasmina khusneddinova. however, the audience was in for another surprise; it was easy to shake the president’s hand. thank you, this is how belarusians sincerely thanked the president for the slavic bazaar,

which, by the way, will last in vitebsk until july 15. in a series of bright festival days, the most important thing is the safety of guests and participants in the art form, the minister of internal affairs emphasized.

and today in festive vitebsk we started days of the union state, representatives of the executive legislative branch, public organizations and youth laid flowers at the eternal flame at the memorial complex in honor of soviet liberator soldiers, partisans and underground fighters of the vitebsk region. secretary of state of the union state dmitry mezintsev also took part in the ceremony; katerina strikha spoke about cultural diplomacy. the slavic bazaar has long been part of the cultural diplomacy of the union state; a large-scale international arts forum has been uniting cities and countries for 33 years in a row. today

days of the union state started at the slavic bazaar, at a press conference in the house of cinema, people who made a significant contribution to the development of culture and art of belarus and cooperation for the development of slavic culture and humanitarian cooperation.