Damascus-SANA
Today, the activities of the second day of the Syrian-Russian joint meeting to follow up on the work of the international conference on the return of Syrian refugees and displaced persons who were forced to leave the country by terrorist crimes continued, at the Conferences Palace in Damascus.
In the context of following-up meetings to develop ways of joint action in various sectors between the Syrian and Russian sides, representatives of the Syrian and Russian ministries of justice discussed draft agreements between the two countries with three laws in preparation for their signature.
In a statement to reporters between the Deputy Minister of Justice in the caretaker government, Judge Tayseer Al-Smadi, that the session aims to scrutinize the draft of three agreements that will be signed between the Syrian and Russian sides related to the transfer of convicts, the extradition of criminals and some other criminal cases, explaining that the Ministry of Justice seeks to have agreements with all friendly countries. To organize the legal aspect related to these issues in a way that facilitates work for countries and their citizens, and that these agreements will be part of the legislative system in both countries.
For their part, representatives of the Russian Ministry of Justice pointed to the importance of cooperation in the legal field between the two countries, noting the coordination and discussion that took place, expressing their hope that the cooperation would be fruitful and successful as it was in the past.
A meeting was also held between representatives of the Syrian and Russian Ministries of Education, in addition to representatives of Moscow State Pedagogical University, with the aim of developing methods for teaching the Russian language, within the framework of an agreement signed between the two countries.
The Assistant Minister of Education in the caretaker government, Dr. Abdul Hakim Al-Hammad, gave a presentation on the teaching of the Russian language in Syria in pre-university education curricula, indicating that more than 30,000 male and female students learn it and 217 schools teach it.
Al-Hammad pointed to the importance of exchanging opinions and experiences in the field of language teaching and raising the efficiency of teachers through training and qualifying them, noting that the Ministry sends outstanding students in the Russian language to Russia as a kind of motivation to learn it, expressing the Ministry's readiness to provide all support for teaching Arabic in the Russian Federation to implement the agreement. signed last year.
Representative of the Russian Ministry of Education Evelina Khadosh referred to the importance of teaching the Russian language in Syria and to the cooperation in the educational field between the two countries, expressing her country's readiness to prepare and develop the Russian language and its teachers in Syria, pointing out that the Arabic language is taught in Russian schools, as the number of Russian students who learned the language reached Arabic in Russia 2,000 Russian students, in addition to a study to receive 40 Syrian students of the Russian language in her country.
Representative of the Ministry of Education for the development of Russian curricula and director of the Russian Center at Damascus University, Svetlana Rodigina, indicated that the meeting included a training workshop for 21 Syrian teachers, which will be held online with professors and participants from Moscow, and certificates will be distributed to the participants in the workshop.
Representatives of the “Russian Science Fund” handed over a set of Russian educational and methodological books and literature to the Syrian Ministry of Education to establish libraries to enrich Russian language teachers in Syria and interested students. The two sides signed the book delivery document, and a number of Syrian children recited a set of poems in Russian.
The meeting, which brought together a delegation from the Ministry of Information and its affiliated institutions, with a delegation from the Russian Ministry of Digital Development and a number of Russian media outlets focused on developing cooperation between the media in the two countries and areas of strengthening it.
During the meeting, Deputy Minister of Information Ahmed Dawa affirmed Syria's desire to enhance cooperation with Russian media institutions in general and governmental institutions in particular, indicating the importance of expanding cooperation to keep pace with the development in the media and social communication and regional and global changes, in parallel with the continuous cooperation between the two countries in combating terrorism.
Dhawa pointed out the importance of cooperation to confront the media war that targets the two countries and works to distort facts and overturn concepts by raising the level of cooperation in the media sector and intensifying the exchange of experiences in addition to networking between media institutions in the two countries.
For her part, the Director of the Russian Department of International Cooperation and Mass Communication Development Larina Ekaterina Gennadevna affirmed her country's desire to enhance cooperation in the media field with Syria and the need for direct cooperation and efforts to strengthen it and work on exchanging information to deliver it accurately, especially those that are deliberately excluded or distorted by Western media.
Ginadevna drew attention to the importance of cooperation in the field of alternative means of social media and reaching a real formula that serves common directions and achieves the necessary and close development in the field of information exchange, not only in the exchange of media materials.
Ginadevna indicated her country's readiness to coordinate projects related to rehabilitation and training in the media field and its desire to cooperate in the field of television through the creation of joint programs and special educational programs and cooperation between radio and television stations.
And two delegations from the Russian Emergencies Ministry and the Syrian Civil Defense discussed the terms of the memorandum of understanding to be signed between the two sides and the proposed amendments to contribute to the advancement of the work of civil defense, emergency, rescue, ambulance, fire and training.
During the meeting, Raman Sergeyev, representative of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, pointed to the importance of preparing and training the necessary cadres to work in the fields of emergency and civil defense, calling for the need to exchange and develop experiences to serve the joint work between the two sides in the fields of firefighting, rescue, ambulance, rehabilitation and training.
Sergiyev stated that the Russian Academy has sufficient experience in this field and is ready to transfer it to the Syrian side and contribute to the creation of a school in Syria with its equipment provided in the form of a grant. In addition, the Ministry of Emergencies has integrated programs to train boys to work in emergency fields and a sports branch for firefighting and rescue. Extensive experience in establishing safe cities, pointing to the importance of sharing work with the Syrian side in this field.
For his part, the Director General of Civil Defense in Syria, Major General Saeed Al-Awad, reviewed the work carried out by firefighting teams during the outbreak of fires in the Syrian coast and Hama last year, pointing out that local manpower was used to carry out this operation due to the difficulty of accessing the fires.
Major General Al-Awad indicated that there is a shortage of capabilities and trained cadres due to the inability to establish a school that studies this specialty during the last period as a result of terrorism, stressing the presence of desire and willingness to cooperate and work with the Russian side to advance this sector.
Representatives of the General Directorate of Customs in Syria and the Russian Federal Customs Administration also held a meeting in which they discussed bilateral cooperation mechanisms and facilitating procedures in order to enhance trade exchange between the two countries.
In a statement to SANA, Director of International Relations at General Customs Safaa Ibrahim said that a number of issues related to bilateral customs cooperation were discussed with representatives of the Russian Federal Customs Administration, facilitating trade exchange through the green corridor, combating smuggling and border protection.
In turn, the First Deputy Head of the Customs Authority of the Russian Federation Andrei Averov said that the two sides discussed an agenda related to four issues in trade exchange, strengthening it and facilitating customs procedures, expressing his confidence that progress in this field will be fast and good.
With regard to the project of the green corridor between the two countries, Averov indicated that its launch has been discussed for a long time, channels have been established for exchanging information in this field, and the next steps are being studied to establish a pilot phase, after which the procedures will be implemented in a practical way, and then exporters and suppliers from the two countries can exchange goods faster and easier.
Deputy Head of the Russian Customs Enforcement Department Oleg Bakanov explained that the action plan includes discussing ways to enhance the exchange of information and organize operations related to customs cooperation and the need to conduct investigations related to smuggling and prohibited items.
