Belarus is ready to consider the suggestions of Israel on the simplification of mutual trips of citizens, Andrei Giro, the head of the Foreign Ministry consular department, said during BelTA’ s online conference. According to him, as early as in July 2004, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry handed over a note to Israel on the suggestion to sign a bilateral agreement on mutual trips of citizens which stipulated for non-visa regime or granting visas free of charge for several categories of citizens. “Israel has not shown their willingness to consider the Belarusian provisional agreement; neither have they suggested any proposals of their own. Taking into consideration that the number of Israeli citizens entering Belarus (former Belarusian citizens first of all) is greater than the number of the Belarusians going to Israel, this country is supposed to be even more interested in this agreement,” Andrei Giro underlined. He noted that “from our part, we would welcome and would be glad to consider the proposals of Israel on the simplified order of mutual trips of citizens.” He added that Belarus simplified the issuance of a visa for Israeli citizens as much as possible. In particular, those who want to enter Belarus for business or visitor visa purposes for 30 days or less do not have to submit an invitation, all they have to do is to fill in an application, purchase an insurance and pay a consular fee. “We are ready to further simplify the order of mutual trips but we have to take into consideration the necessity to protect the interests of our citizens on the mutual basis”, the head of the Foreign Ministry consular department said.