Armenia is “on the right track” in trying to get the European Union to lift its visa requirements for Armenian nationals, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said during a visit to Yerevan on Tuesday.
“Armenia is making major efforts to become a rule-of-law state and protect human rights, and these efforts should continue,” he said after talks with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian. “Armenia is one the right track, and if things continue like this the day will come when the visa regime is finally liberalized.”
Asselborn was careful not to speculate about when that might happen. “I can’t give a concrete date,” he told a joint news conference with Nalbandian. “It also depends on the European Commission (the EU’s executive body), which has to find the right solution for all relevant countries.”
“You can count on Luxembourg. We will do everything to push this process forward,” added the minister, who met with President Serzh Sarkisian later in the day.
At their Eastern Partnership summit with Armenia and five other former Soviet republics held in Brussels last November, EU leaders pledged to start a “visa liberalization dialogue” with Yerevan soon.
They said in 2015 that such a process is contingent on the “full implementation” of an EU-Armenia agreement on “readmission” of illegal immigrants. The agreement was signed in April 2013 shortly after the EU eased some of its visa rules and procedures for Armenians. Armenia unilaterally abolished its visa regime for the citizens of the EU member states around that time.