Urmas Paet: “Including Belarus in Eastern Partnership program is possible only on condition of progress”

• 31.03.2009, 11:34

Minister of foreign affaires of Estonia Urmas Paet told this in Tallinn during a meeting with his Portuguese colleague Luís Amado.

Speaking about the Eastern Partnership initiative, the Estonian minister emphasised that every country-participant should demonstrate its concrete and effective policy to become closer to the European Union, Radio Svaboda reports.

When speaking about Belarus, Paet said concrete prerequisites were needed to include the country in the Eastern Partnership program. According to the head of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affaires,

“These prerequisites must be progress in the nation and a desire to move forward with reforms based on democratic values and ensuring the basic rights of citizens.”

It should be reminded that an international conference in the memory of the first Estonian president Lennart Meri, sponsored by president of Estonia Toomas Handrik Ilves, is taking place these days in Tallinn. The guests of the conference are EU foreign ministers, high-ranking European officials and leading experts. Belarus is represented at this prestigious forum by Andrei Sannikov, leader of the civil campaign “European Belarus”, and Iryna Krasouskaya, head of the initiative “We Remember”.