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Foreign Minister Martynaw expected to attend Eastern Partnership meeting in Brussels

 

Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhey Martynaw is expected to attend a meeting of the foreign ministers representing the European Union and the Eastern Partnership countries in Brussels on July 23.

"The minister has been invited [to the meeting]. I believe he will attend," Andrey Savinykh, spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, told BelaPAN.

When reached by BelaPAN, Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said that the foreign ministers were expected to sign the Eastern Partnership Roadmap, which provides for a plan of action until the program's next summit in 2013.

Apart from this, she said, the ministers are to discuss the agenda of the Eastern Partnership for the next 18 months, civil society's contribution to the achievement of the Eastern Partnership's objectives, the role of bilateral and multilateral cooperation and the prospect of strengthening cooperation in the sphere of the Common Security and Defense Policy.

The Eastern Partnership talks will be preceded by a meeting of the EU foreign ministers in Brussels on July 23. The situation in Belarus is not on the agenda of the meeting, according to Ms. Kocijancic. // BelaPAN