The €3,700,000+ project is a logical follow-up to the previous BOMBEL-3 project implemented in 2009-2011 that enabled the Belarus Border Service to create a modern communications and data transfer system along the Belarusian/Polish border.

By providing technical assistance with the telecommunications network development based on the state-of-the-art technology based on the use of high-capacity fibre-optic communication lines, BOMBEL-4 makes a substantial contribution to improvement of the border service management along the Belarusian/Lithuanian border.

The fibre-optic communication lines to be built are almost 400 kilometres long in total, with about 50 posts. All work is to be completed within 24 months only.

BOMBEL-4 provides for a deep upgrade of the border service telecommunications infrastructure along the Belarusian/Lithuanian border, which will allow building a reliable high-speed network, enabling the use of all latest telecommunication services in the border protection interests, and creating conditions for the development of an integrated border management system applying the latest technical means of border protection.

The BOMBEL-4 Project will make a significant contribution to provision of maximum comfort with Belarusian/Lithuanian border crossing to law-abiding citizens and creation of a reliable barrier to execution of lawless intents of international criminal communities.

As mentioned by the SBC Deputy Chair Major General Igor Pechen, BOMBEL-4 is an essential project for the Belarusian border agency, it is a unique in content and the largest EU-implemented project aimed at building telecommunication infrastructure in Belarus – both in terms of its technical design, construction period/cost, and its scale.

In her turn, the Project Manager of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Belarus Outa Hermalahti underscored: “This cooperation allows as making well-functioning borders. They are safe, closed to illegal activities, and at the same time open to law abiding citizens. It is highly important, because we, Belarus and the EU, are neighbours, and these borders are making us closer, rather than apart from each other”.

The current situation on the joint border of Belarus and the European Union supports the need for and relevance of such projects reinforcing both national and European border security for the purposes of effective response to the transboundary crime challenges and threats. In this regard, support for efficient and prompt communications between border units is crucial for forecasting situation developments and for taking advance preventive measures on the executive level.

During the ceremony, Mr Igor Pechen, expressed, on behalf of the border agency, sincere appreciation of the substantial assistance provided by the European Union to Belarus with the border security reinforcement. He also emphasized that the border-related cooperation with the EU is long-term, integrated and very fruitful. Thus, several joint project are implemented now in such areas, as the Belarusian/Ukrainian border demarcation, readmission and improvement of the efficiency of protection of the border with Poland, training of Belarusian border guards in integrated border management issues.