Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Georgia and Switzerland signed an agreement on visa simplification.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry reported that the document was signed by Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze and her Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter in Neuchatel on September 13.

The document is based on the agreement on the simplification of visa regime between the EU and Georgia, which is valid since March of 2011.

"Among the other issues, it regulates the simplification of the issuance of the long-term multiple-entry visas to the groups of different categories, such as business people, journalists and family members of Georgian citizens residing in Switzerland," the Swiss Foreign Ministry reported. "It also allows members of the government with diplomatic passports traveling on a visa-free basis."

Moreover, Panjikidze and Burkhalter discussed the role of Switzerland as a mediator in the relationship between Georgia and Russia, which have maintained no diplomatic relations since August 2008.

Georgia and Russia, its giant northern neighbor, have maintained no diplomatic relations since a brief war in 2008. Tbilisi broke off relations with Moscow in August 2008 when Moscow crushed a Georgian assault to reassert control over two rebel regions -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- and later recognized the regions. Georgia announced the two unrecognized republics as occupied territories in September 2008.

Switzerland, which will chair OSCE in 2014, announced that one of the country's priorities as an OSCE chairman will be the assistance for the settlement of conflicts in the South Caucasus through dialogue and restore of the confidence.