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Russia, Belarus plan to create common visa space — Lavrov

"This will require some professional and technical consultations by experts that we are beginning now," Russia's top diplomat said

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. Russia and Belarus plan to create a common visa space and the agreement on the mutual recognition of visas will be the first step along these lines, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Belarussian media on Friday on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

"An agreement on a common visa space is on our agenda. Mutual recognition of visas we wish to coordinate will be the first step along these lines," he said.

"This will require some professional and technical consultations by experts that we are beginning now. When we come to terms we will make fundamental progress towards forming a common migration space and a common visa space," Lavrov said.

He recalled that the Council of Ministers of the Russia-Belarus Union State on June 16 approved a joint action program for creating a common migration space by 2020.

"This is an important step towards achieving common approaches to this no simple matter, especially if one bears in mind that we still don’t have entirely identical lists of countries with which we have certain visa rules - ordinary, simple or visaless.