The third edition of the festival of the Moldovan Belarusians called “Belarus – maya Radzima” (Belarus – My Motherland), takes place in Chisinau from September 12 to 14, occasioned by the Days of the Belarusian Writing, Info-Prim Neo reports. The festival is organized by the Belarusian Embassy to Moldova in cooperation with creation centers of children from Moldova and Belarus, the Belarusian Communities from Moldova and the Moldova-Belarus Association. On the occasion of opening the festival, the Creation Center of Children and Youth from Belarus and the Children and Youth Republican Center from Moldova signed for a program of joint activities for 2008 and 2009. Ten children from Moldova have already recreated in a summer camp in Belarus. 20 Belarusian children came to Chisinau to stay with Moldovan families. They will perform in the festival The Belarusian Ambassador, Vasily Sakovich, has said the Moldo-Belarusian relations are as active as ever this year. The trade is up 1.8 times. The ambassador forecasts they will reach $350-370 million by year-end, 6 times more than in 2000. A paintings exhibition called “The World Seen by Children” is inaugurated Friday at the Patria cinema in Chisinau, with over 150 pictures by children from the two countries. The opening ceremony of the festival takes places Friday at 17.00 at the National Philharmonics, as the folk ensembles of the Belarusian communities will perform there. On September 13, at 11.00, library M. Lomonosov will host a literary salon to be attended by poets and writers from Belarus and Moldova. A book titled “Belarus-Moldova – 15 years of diplomatic relations” will be presented. The associations “Moldova-Belarus” and “Belarus-Moldova” will sign a cooperation program for 2009, 2010, while the Belarusian Women Union will donate books to that library. On Sunday, at 10.30, a plaque commemorating the Soviet soldiers fallen in the Second World War will be unveiled on the Belarusian Birch Trees Alley at the Eternitate Memorial.