YEREVAN, July 2 (HS/RIA Novosti) - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday that he expects to liberalize the visa regime with the European Union by 2029.
During the pre-election period, I stated that our goal over the next two years ... as of 2029, to achieve visa liberalization [with the EU], Pashinyan said during a briefing with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Yerevan.
A lot depends on the Armenian side and its willingness to implement reforms in this matter, the prime minister added.
There will be more evaluation missions this autumn to assess the process and the progress that is on the remaining benchmarks. This is a merit based process [the visa free liberalization agreement] - so certain elements have to be fulfilled, von der Leyen told the briefing.
Armenia is on the right path, she added.
Once all these necessary elements are fulfilled, we can move on to our proposal for visa free, so it's a matter to be able to do the steps necessary for reforms, we will help you with that and if this is fulfilled - then you passed the finish line, von der Leyen said.
Armenia is the only partner country currently engaged in an active visa liberalization dialogue with the European Union, and the April report showed the great progress made by the country towards achieving this goal, von der Leyen added.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar
