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Russia, Belarus sign agreement on mutual recognition of each other’s visas

Under the agreement, citizens of third countries with a valid visa of either Russia or Belarus will be allowed to enter, leave and stay in the other country until their visa expires, to cross the land border of Russia and Belarus by rail or air and via major highways

MINSK, June 19. /TASS/. The foreign ministers of Russia and Belarus, Sergey Lavrov and Vladimir Makei, signed on Friday an agreement between Russia and Belarus on mutual recognition of each other’s visas, TASS reported from the scene.

Earlier in the day, the presidents of Russia and Belarus, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, talked on the phone voicing "satisfaction that the work on the Russian-Belarusian intergovernmental agreement on mutual recognition of each other’s visas has ended."

On December 12, 2018, Russia’s then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a government resolution ‘On signing an agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Belarus on mutual recognition of each other’s visas and other issues related to entry of foreign nationals and stateless citizens on the territory of the states - signatories to the Treaty on the Creation of a Union State.’

Under the agreement, citizens of third countries with a valid visa of either Russia or Belarus will be allowed to enter, leave and stay in the other country until their visa expires, to cross the land border of Russia and Belarus by rail or air and via major highways. Each party reserves the right to deny entry to those persons or to shorten their stay on its territory.

Moscow and Minsk had planned to sign an intergovernmental agreement on mutual recognition of each other’s visas at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State of Russia and Belarus in Brest on December 13, 2018. However, the signing was postponed as Minsk had not finalized some internal procedures. That was amended later and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that all proposals had been taken into account in the final draft. Bilateral discussions were underway until now.

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