Kupchina stresses the need to revise Eastern Partnership Initiative

      Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus Yelena Kupchina believes it is necessary to revise the Eurasian Partnership Initiative after five years of its operation taking into account new present-day challenges and the current situation in the region.
       The Belarusian representative made this statement at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Visegrad and Eastern Partnership member states that took place in Budapest, the Foreign Ministry of Belarus reports. The head of the Belarusian delegation spoke at the plenary meeting and presented Belarus’ approaches to the implementation and further development of the Eastern Partnership Initiative. Yelena Kupchina underlined the utmost respect of the basic principles of equality, non-discrimination and mutual responsibility fixed in the 2009 Prague Declaration and the consideration of priorities, needs and interests of the partner-states on the basis of the principle of differentiation. The Deputy Foreign Minister stressed the importance of giving the Eastern Partnership Initiative an inclusive status, enhancing the level of transparency for the sake of securing sustainability and efficiency of the initiative.