OREANDA-NEWS. On September 21, 2016, during the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Makei, to New York, an Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the United States of America on the protection and preservation of certain cultural properties a special ceremony was signed.

Representatives from the World Jewish Congress and the U.S. States Department took part in the signing ceremony.

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Belarus, the Agreement was signed by Vladimir Makei, the Foreign Minister of Belarus. On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, the Agreement was signed by Lesley Weiss, the Chair of the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.

In his statement, the head of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs underlined that the Agreement provides solid legal grounds for intergovernmental cooperation between Belarus and the United States in the field of protection and preservation of cultural properties. The reason of this is that many famous Americans track their family roots back to Belarus and many Belarusians have left their mark in American history.

V.Makei noted that the Agreement testifies the improvement of political relations between the two states, taking into account that the Republic of Belarus and the United States hadn’t concluded any intergovernmental agreement for two last decades.