Minsk ready to work on framework cooperation agreement with EU, EU not yet ready
MINSK. Nov 29 (Interfax) - Minsk says it is interested in complete normalization of relations with the European Union.
"The process of a final normalization with the EU has not been achieved yet. This is a fragile process; one must not do any harm to it. Belarus is very interested in normalization," Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Yelena Kupchina told reporters in Minsk on Tuesday.
Regarding signing a framework agreement on cooperation with the EU, she said that "at all meetings, the Belarusian side always articulates our interest in beginning negotiations [on the agreement] or at least consultations."
"The European side is not ready yet. As Mrs. Wiktorin [Andrea Wiktorin, head of the EU delegation to Belarus] said, the European Union still wants to see a bigger progress on part of Belarus in the issues of development of democratic institutions. This is their stance," Kupchina said.
She said that Minsk considers the cooperation agreement with the EU absolutely necessary. "It is wrong when a country such as Belarus, which makes a quite sizable contribution to regional stability and security and that has achieved significant progress in developing relations of partnership with the EU, does not even have a negotiation process regarding the agreement on cooperation," she said.
Belarus is the only country in the Eastern Partnership which does not have an agreement on cooperation with the EU.