In this regard, the Ukrainian Foreign Office released a statement which reads, “Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, Marco Mendicino, have signed a letter of intent to create a Ukrainian-Canadian work group that will deal with issues of mobility between the Foreign Office of Ukraine, the Interior Ministry of Ukraine and the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada”.
The group will focus on problems of migration and mobility as well as on the ways of easing entry requirements for citizens of Ukraine to Canada.
“The work group will be an effective instrument of a mutual response to world challenges in the sphere of migration and a new platform for a bilateral dialogue aimed at making visa requirements for trips of citizens of Ukraine to Canada simpler”, stated Foreign Minister Kuleba.
President Zelenskyy welcomed the creation of the work group on issues of mobility. Here’s what he wrote, “I’m sure this new instrument will promote the bilateral dialogue between Canada and Ukraine on migration and simplifying the regime of trips of Ukrainians to Canada”.
Consultations on the liberalization of the visa regime between Ukraine and Canada started in 2015.
In September of 2017, Ivanna Klimpush-Tsintsadze, the then Vice Prime Minister in charge of issues of European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine, stated that Canada was not ready for talks with Ukraine on the visa-free regime. Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau explained that in order for the talks to begin, Ukraine had to correspond to “a number of clear indicators”.
After the change of power in Ukraine, the bilateral dialogue has resumed. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Deputy Prime Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland met last June to discuss the topic of the visa regime liberalization.
In the same month, President Zelenskyy said during his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau that Ukraine had hopes for progress in the process of the gradual liberalization of the visa regime for Ukrainian citizens.
On January 22, before the letter of intent on the creation of the work group had been signed Denys Shmyhal had had a telephone conversation with Chrystia Freeland. He mentioned once again Ukraine’s great interest in the visa regime liberalization. The Ukrainian Prime Minister assured that Ukraine was ready to receive a team of Canadian experts for conducting the monitoring of Ukraine’s compliance with Canadian requirements.
Analysts believe that the reached agreement between the two sides is although important but still the first step in the direction of the simplified visa regime. There are long negotiations ahead. The decision of the official Ottawa on introducing Ukraine in the list of countries whose citizens enjoy the right to the simplified entry to the territory of Canada will be made on the basis of the experts’ conclusion whether Ukraine conforms to 40 criteria, namely: its social and economic situation, migration issues, compliance of travel documents, safety considerations, respect for human rights, the state of bilateral relations to mention but a few.
The newspaper Voice of Ukraine
