Belarus' upper house approves suspension of agreement on cooperation in education with Poland

MINSK, 30 January (BelTA) - The senators approved the bill "On suspension of the agreement between the Belarusian and Polish governments on cooperation in education" at the tenth session of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus of the seventh convocation on 30 January, BelTA informs.

The agreement between the governments of Belarus and Poland on cooperation in education was signed in Warsaw on 20 July 2016,” member of the Council of the Republic Yekaterina Serafimovich said. “At a time we signed the agreement the relations between Poland and Belarus were normalized. The agreement outlined the main areas of bilateral cooperation in the field of education. These include the development of direct contacts between educational institutions and scientific organizations, the mutual exchange of students, graduate students, faculty, and also the organization of retraining and advanced training of teachers in the field of Belarusian and Polish philology.”

“In the past two years, Poland was hardly friendly towards Belarus,” the senator noted. "Poland undertook aggressive steps at the international level, in international organizations," she stressed.

The agreement does not contain provisions on the possibility of its suspension. In line with article 62, paragraphs 1, 2, of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 23 May 1969, an international treaty may be suspended in the event of a fundamental change of circumstances which has occurred with regard to those existing at the time of the conclusion of a treaty. The agreement is suspended to protect the national interests.

"Belarus is known as a peace-loving country that seeks to build relations with neighboring countries on the principles of equality and mutual respect. With these principles in place, Belarus will continue to sign agreements and cooperate with foreign countries," Yekaterina Serafimovich added.