English

Belarus, EU may sign visa facilitation agreement in 2015, foreign minister say

Belarus and the European Union may sign agreements on visa facilitation and readmission at a summit of the Eastern Partnership in Riga in 2015, Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey said in an interview with BelaPAN.

"The European Union is used to timing the signing of important agreements to coincide with some key events or dates," he said. "But I wouldn`t set any specific dates now. We will be working calmly to secure agreements that would be mutually acceptable in form and in content."

Mr. Makey described efforts to simplify visa regimes with a number of countries as a key foreign-policy priority of Belarus. "It is indeed important to ordinary people in the first place. But it is also important to businesses, which is of significant importance to us as well," he said.

He referred to existing visa-free travel agreements with Turkey and Brazil and said that Belarus` talks with Israel on a similar accord were nearing completion.

Mr. Makey warned that the visa facilitation talks with the EU could be slowed down by "pitfalls and complications."

Minsk has made clear that such accords should not be any different from similar agreements that the EU signed with other countries, according to the minister. "We will not accept any discrimination in this respect and intend to hold talks only on the basis of equal rights and mutual benefits," he said.

Mr. Makey said that an EU delegation`s visit to Minsk for the talks, originally scheduled for May, had been postponed because of technical reasons. "As far as I know they plan to visit Belarus in the next few days," he said. "We will hold a meaningful dialogue on the visa facilitation and readmission agreements. But let me say it again: we have no intentions to artificially speed up this process, nor do we intend to slow it down."