OREANDA-NEWS. November 10, 2009. Finnish experts will share the experience of protecting border waterways with Belarusian border guards, press center of the State Border Guard Committee of Belarus said.

A reminder, on 21 October 2009 the State Border Guard Committee of Belarus joined the single European border system. The heads of the State Border Guard Committee and the European Union border protection agency Frontex signed a memorandum of cooperation. “Our country restrains the flows of illegal migrants and smugglers on the 1,250km-long border, the longest part of the EU border. The memorandum will benefit the two sides,” the committee said.

First of all, the document allows exchanging operational information about the situation on the border. Secondly, Belarusian border guards will be able to attend training courses and take part in the events organized by Frontex. The memorandum also envisages the assistance of experts in the interests of the reliable border protection. A working meeting of experts of border services of Belarus and Finland is one of the first practical steps on the way of introducing advanced European experience in waterway protection.

Finish experts first visited Loyev. On 11 November the delegation will visit the Lida border guard detachment to get familiar with the forms and methods of protecting border waterways on the lakes Kuzhi, Enchi and Poditva. On 12 November experts will come over to Grodno to visit the Privalka border post.

Around 400 kilometers of Belarus’ state border go along such big rivers as Pripyat, Dnepr, Sozh, Zapadnyi Bug, Dvina, Neman and along a great number of small rivers and lakes.