There are no grounds for a border regime with Belarus - Lavrov
The union state of Russia and Belarus must develop in full accordance with the outlined principles. In terms of reconciling the controversial issue regarding the visa regime with third countries, the ball has been in Minsk’s court for a year and a half.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated this during the conference, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We see no reason to introduce a border regime. We are interested in the Union State developing in full accordance with the principles, goals and directions that were laid down in the Union Treaty of 1999. Among other principles, there is an obligation of the parties to create equal conditions for citizens of Belarus and Russia in any sphere of life - in the economy, in culture, in legal relations, and so on,” said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“As for crossing the border, about two and a half years ago, when our Belarusian neighbors unilaterally introduced a visa-free regime for entry into Belarus for citizens of about 80 states, this was not agreed with us and created a situation where visa-free access to Belarus citizens of countries that did not have a visa-free regime with us entered, and in the absence of any border control between Belarus and Russia, a citizen who must obtain a visa to enter Russia could freely, and therefore illegally, enter the territory of the Russian Federation.
It was then that we proposed to agree on a unified visa policy for Russia and Belarus, so that we would have mutually compiled lists of those for whom entry is denied and so that we would have common approaches to providing a visa-free regime to citizens of the respective states. We prepared such an agreement, it was initialed in December 2018, and now it has been waiting to be signed for almost a year and a half. We have all the documents that authorized our ministry to sign this agreement; all the powers were given to us by the government back in December 2018,” said the head of the diplomatic department.
“So, I think, the signing of this agreement will largely remove the concerns that were discussed and will remove the last reasons for those who would like to create a fully equipped border between our member countries of the Union State. I think that our Belarusian colleagues will somehow inform us of their position in the near future and confirm their readiness to sign what was initialed a year and a half ago,” Lavrov concluded.
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