Events

MINSK, 12 February (BelTA) – The Foreign Ministry of Belarus welcomes positive developments in Belarus’ relations with the European Union and the United States. This statement was made in the foreign policy review 2013 released by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, BelTA has learnt.

“The year 2013 marked some progress in improving relations with the European Union that is objectively one of the priority foreign economic and foreign policy partners of Belarus,” the review reads.

The Foreign Ministry pointed to more active communication with the EU organizations and foreign ministries of the EU member states, successful implementation of technical cooperation projects with the European Union, including cross-border cooperation projects Belarus-Latvia-Lithuania and Belarus-Poland-Ukraine projects and the Baltic Sea Region Programme. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry believes that “equal and non-discriminate participation of Belarus in the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius laid a basis for expanding cooperation with the European Union and advancing the relations to a new level”.

“Belarus-EU cooperation in 2014 will focus on the agreement on readmission and on optimizing visa formalities. The work on removing issues in Belarus-EU relations will continue,” the review reads.

Belarus-EU cooperation in politics, economy and investments was gaining momentum. High-level contacts became more frequent. In particular, the year 2013 witnessed closer cooperation with the Baltic neighbors – Lithuania and Latvia. A high-level dialogue resumed, the two countries remained important economic partners of Belarus. Besides, despite certain restrictions, the cooperation with Lithuania was making pretty good progress during Lithuania’s EU chairmanship in H2 2013.

Eight sessions of intergovernmental commissions for trade and economic cooperation were held in 2013. These sessions featured representatives of Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, and Czechia. Ministerial consultations were arranged with 14 European countries.

Some positive trends in cooperation with the United States started to take shape in 2013. “The successful implementation of some joint projects and initiatives gave ground to speak about the first signs of rapprochement in the bilateral relations,” the review reads.

A high-profile delegation of the U.S. Department of State visited Belarus in December. This was their first visit in the past several years. According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, “the talks that were held during the visit revealed that the parties share positions on a number of matters of the mutual interest. The parties discussed measures to enhance the trust in the bilateral relations”.

The bilateral trade exceeded $0.5 billion in 2013. The cooperation was particularly successful in healthcare, sport, humanitarian field and interaction between Belarusian and U.S. law enforcement agencies.

“The progress in Belarus’ relations with the European Union and the United States has revealed that there are opportunities to make the bilateral dialogue constructive,” the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.