RUSSIA, BELARUS CREATE JOINT COMMITTEE TO PROTECT BELARUS’ BORDERS.

The commanders of border troops of Russia and Belarus, Generals Andrei Nikolaev and Alyaksandr Pavlovski, signed yesterday in Minsk an agreement creating a Joint Committee for Border Protection, to be headed by the Russian side. The Committee’s tasks include organizing border control on the borders of Belarus with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia; supervising and financing the construction of border installations on those same sectors; and working out a joint Russia-Belarus approach to the protection of their borders with Ukraine. At a concluding news conference, the two commanders described the agreement as an initial step toward establishing joint command of the border forces, as envisaged by the Russia-Belarus Union’s treaty and charter which were signed in April and ratified last month. Russia and Belarus will each allocate 20 billion rubles in 1997 to build up and equip the Baltic section of Belarus’s border. (Russian agencies, July 14)

Slavic University Inaugurated in Moldova.