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Belarus to continue participation in Eastern Partnership: FM

03 October 2011 21:36 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Belarus will continue its participation in the Eastern Partnership program, but expects this program to deal with particular projects in the future, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov told local media on Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"We did not take part in the summit, but we will preserve our Eastern Partnership participation," the minister said.

Martynov said Belarus sees a lot of flaws in the Eastern Partnership program, an initiative launched by Sweden and Poland in 2009 to deepen the European Union’s ties with Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

He said: "It does not contain real practical projects. We insist that they should have substantive practical contents. Other countries have the same view."

Belarus decided not to take part in the Eastern Partnership summit held in Warsaw on Sept. 29-30. The Belarusian foreign ministry said organizers of the summit refused to send an invitation to the head of the Belarusian state.

"These actions grossly violate the basic principles of Eastern Partnership agreed upon at the first summit in Prague in 2009. By taking these steps, the summit organizers damage this regional initiative’s efficiency and bear responsibility for this," the ministry said in a statement.