Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus V.Makei visits Sweden

05 November 2019

05-11-2019

On November 5, 2019 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, paid the first in the history of Belarusian-Swedish relations working visit to the Kingdom of Sweden.

At the invitation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Anne Linde, and the Minister for International Development Cooperation, Peter Eriksson, the Head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry attended the High-Level Meeting on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Eastern Partnership (EaP). The event in the capital of Sweden was also attended by the Foreign Ministers of other EaP countries – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland and representatives of the European Commission.

In his speech, V.Makei presented the proposals of Belarus on the development of the Eastern Partnership for the period up to 2030, drew attention to the key problems this initiative faces. The Minister underlined that the Eastern Partnership should become a region of stability and prosperity, aimed at tangible results. In this case, the EU would be able to consider the Initiative successful. The Minister called on the European Union to continue supporting negotiations on our country's accession to the WTO and to start work on a new basic agreement.

V.Makei accentuated the viability of the simplification of the EU procedures for accessing goods from the EaP countries to the European market, strengthening production cooperation between European companies and the EaP countries’ enterprises.

On November 5, V.Makei held the bilateral meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Ann Linde. The Heads of the Foreign Ministries exchanged opinions on Belarus-EU relations and the future of the Eastern Partnership initiative.

On the same day, in Riksdag V.Makei met with the Chair of the Parliament of Sweden, Andreas Nurlen. The discussion with the Speaker, the second highest official in Sweden after the King, was focused on the issues of inter-parliamentary cooperation of the two countries, collaboration within multilateral regional initiatives.