MINSK, 19 July (BelTA) – Belarus' visa-waiver program for citizens of the neighboring countries promotes interpersonal contacts, Grodno Oblast Governor Vladimir Karanik told the media after the meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, during which the parties discussed, among other thigns, the visa-waiver program, BelTA has learned.
According to the governor, the number of visa-waiver arrivals in the region from Lithuania and Poland is growing. "We don't see any problem with these visits," he said. “People communicate with their relatives. They do go shopping here. But this does not cause any shortages. People buying things here and taking them home, to their countries, does not cause an aggressive reaction from locals."
Vladimir Karanik is convinced that the visa-waiver program promotes interpersonal contacts: "Friendship and good relations between states begin with friendship and good relations between their citizens. For our part, we are interested in good-neighborly relations with all our neighbors and will continue to stimulate interpersonal contacts, which (after all, philosophy has not been canceled) will grow from quantity into quality. Foreigners who come to our country and see that this is a calm, clean, beautiful and very comfortable country will be able to convey this point of view to their politicians, and relations between our countries will begin to improve.
