Belarus quits joint border control agreement with Ukraine

MINSK. Dec 18 (Interfax) - Belarus has terminated its agreement with Ukraine regarding joint control at border checkpoints, under a law signed by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and published on the National Legal Internet Portal on Saturday.

"To terminate the Belarus-Ukraine intergovernmental agreement to organize joint control at checkpoints on the Belarusian-Ukrainian state border, signed in Kiev on December 14, 1995," the document says.

Earlier, the Belarusian parliament said it had drafted a law in relation to a "substantial violation by the Ukrainian side of the terms of the agreement." Under Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, of May 23, 1969, a substantial violation of an international agreement by one party entitles the other to invoke the violation as a ground for terminating or suspending the agreement, parliamentarians said.