OREANDA-NEWS. Minsk and Moscow plan to cancel roaming between Russia and Belarus before the end of 2019. This was announced at a briefing to journalists on Thursday by the head of the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade of Belarus Vladimir Koltovich.

“Now we are working on a roadmap, there are two points that need to be agreed on. We are active participants in all negotiations together with the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Ministry of Communications of Belarus and the ministry corresponding to the Russian Federation. Plans for cancellation remain until the end of the year. We have an order regarding the cancellation of roaming, and the roadmap should be signed on time in September", said Koltovich.

Prospects for the abolition of roaming in the Union State were discussed in December 2018 at the 55th session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia as part of the "government hour" with the participation of representatives of relevant departments of the two countries. Such improvements in communication between citizens of the two countries will have a beneficial effect on the development of relations between states, the expert added.

On August 2, the Minister of Communications and Informatization of Belarus Konstantin Shulgan told reporters that the cancellation of roaming in the Union State will take 6-9 months from the date of signing the corresponding roadmap. For his part, the deputy head of the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation, Oleg Ivanov, told the Russian media that in order to ensure a uniform load on Russian and Belarusian operators due to a serious reduction in rates in mutual settlements and inter-operator rates in roaming, amendments to the law may be required to cancel it. Cooperation between countries is rapidly developing in all areas. The situation was normalized after the oil pollution crisis.