Understanding the nuances of ethnic and national identity in faraway countries is arguably the Achilles’s heel of Western foreign policy making. This is regrettable considering that such nuances have powerful influence on international crises and on shaping their outcomes. This was the case in Iraq, and this is now the case in Ukraine. The rule of thumb is that any external provocation only achieves its conflict-inciting goals when cracks in the monolith are alreaady there. As acting president of Ukraine [...]

Read full article…

Brussels, 17 June. It is not impossible that Belarus will withdraw from talks on visa facilitation and readmission agreements if the European Union refuses to discuss the possibility of visa-free travel for holders of diplomatic passports, a source at the European Commission told BelaPAN.

EU visa statistics are covering:

Visa facilitation agreements with Moldova, Ukraine and the Western Balkans entered into force in January 2008. In the same year, Ukraine and the Western Balkan countries started a dialogue on visa liberalisation with the EU. But unlike citizens from the Western Balkans, Eastern Europeans still require a visa to enter the EU. What are the obstacles to visa-free travel for Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries and what are the potential benefits of visa liberalisation? This document looks at the pros and cons of visa-free travel with the EU’s Eastern neighbours.

Some years ago Belarus signed an agreement for the so-called «small border traffic» with the neighboring countries of the EU Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The matter concerns visa-free trips to the neighboring countries of the border territories residents. The agreement with Latvia has already come into effect; with Lithuania and Poland — has not. In May 2012 the unregistered party Belarusian Christian Democracy began collecting signatures on the Internet to the petition for realization of the appropriate agreement between Belarus and Poland. Authors of the petition are «deeply concerned about the [...]

Read full article…