The abolition of visas is not on the Belarus-EU agenda yet, Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Martynov told reporters following a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on 20 June, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.
According to Sergei Martynov, the talks have been concentrated on small border traffic. “We have made considerable progress here: Belarus has signed the small border traffic agreement with all the neighbors that are the EU member states – Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. These agreements were ratified by the Belarusian parliament. Some of our neighbors followed suit, some not yet; anyways, the parties are working hard to implement the agreement,” Sergei Martynov said.
He noted that intensive work is underway. “This includes the issuance of special cards for the eligible citizens and the establishment of the special 50km zone on the both sides of the border which residents might be able to travel without visas; this also pertains to the equipment of border crossings – it is a challenging technical issue we are working on now,” Sergei Martynov said. “Over one million people are involved on the both sides. It is a significant step forward for Belarus, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia,” the Foreign Minister said.
He reminded that the freedom of movement within the EU has been enshrined in the OSCE agreements. “This was first done back in 1975 and confirmed numerous times in Budapest, Madrid, Helsinki and Moscow. Unfortunately, the 1990s saw a setback to the Helsinki principles declared in 1975,” Sergei Martynov said.
