Plans to Ease Travel Between Georgia and Ukraine Accelerated

The governments of Georgia and Ukraine are well into discussions to simplify travel procedures. The plan to allow Georgian and Ukrainian citizens to travel between the two countries without a passport, using just a national identification document, was first discussed in November, 2017.

Georgian Prime Minister, Mamuka Bakhtadze, and Oleksandr Saienko of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine met yesterday and expressed a shared desire to accelerate the plan’s implementation.

Bakhtadze said he is ready to accelerate internal procedures in Georgia, Saienko’s press office announced.

Saienko congratulated Bakhtadze on his appointment to the post of Prime Minister and invited him to make an official state visit to Ukraine on behalf of Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.

Bakhtadze and Saienko also discussed plans to increase cooperation regarding developing transport corridors within the framework of the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative / New Silk Road.

Saienko wants to continue constructive dialogue and cooperation with Georgia to improve current and future transport routes and to reduce trade barriers. Saienko says that Ukraine "highly appreciates” the recent strengthening of bilateral relations, which has had a strong positive influence on trade relations. "I think that we will gradually achieve an increase in the volume of mutual trade to $1 billion," affirmed Saienko.

"When the Ukrainian Prime Minister visited Georgia,” in late 2017, “he voiced his desire to launch a simplified movement regime between Georgia and Ukraine only with ID cards, just like between Georgia and Turkey. The initiative has been adopted, relevant instructions have been issued and the process is ongoing,” Georgian Ambassador to Ukraine Gela Dumbadze told IPN last year.

When Prime Minister Groysman visited Georgia on November 27, 2017, he affirmed support for the initiative of with then-Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

Current rules allow Georgian and Ukrainian citizens to visit each other’s countries visa-free for 90 days within a 180-day period, but they must use a passport to cross the border.

By Samantha Guthrie