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17 Nov 2016

Lukashenko on the Union State: Much has been done, yet integration has slowed down

Lukashenko on the Union State: Much has been done, yet integration has slowed downMINSK, 17 November (BelTA) – We have done a lot to promote integration in the Union State of Belarus and Russia, but there is a certain slowdown now, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said at a press conference for Russian regional mass media on 17 November.

“Much has been done, but there is certain stagnation, and for this you criticize us. But there are objective reasons for this. 20 years ago we were probably too romantic. When we began to study specific issues, it turned out it was not all that easy. Now there are many groups of influence; some inconsistencies emerged between the states themselves. I hope that we will be able to make additional steps maybe not in the near future but in the medium term,” the head of state stressed when asked what has been done in the Union State over the past 20 years.

Alexander Lukashenko noted that Belarus and Russia have gone a certain way, but failed to do some things. “We have not created a single parliament, unified government, which we once aspired to do and which was spelled out in the Treaty. We have not held a referendum on the constitution as we were going to. And it was not through the fault of Belarus,” he said.

The Belarusian leader recalled the achievements, in particular, the free movement of people and capital, the coherent foreign policy, single economic space. “In most cases, we operate under the uniform rules, regulations and laws. In addition, we have learned to protect our homeland with the help of the single armed forces. You know that within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty, and based on the agreements with Russia, we created a single Belarusian-Russian group in the western direction as an alternative to NATO. The core of this group is the 70,000-strong armed forces of Belarus. These, according to NATO, are the best trained and well-armed army in the CIS. It is now at the forefront, defending our common frontiers,” the President said.

Speaking of healthcare and education, Alexander Lukashenko recalled that the two countries have almost uniform standards. “You can come to Belarus for medical treatment. We can go to Moscow, St. Petersburg or any other city. Education is freely available as well. We have established several joint universities. Our secondary schools have almost identical curricula. Universities, especially those for the humanities, have similar curricula, too. In some points we are even ahead of you in terms of patriotic presentation of material. We have not been running between two extremes in terms of the national history studies, as Russia have. We have never rejected our history, overthrown monuments. We have never renamed streets. If these things and people have happened in the history of our country, so they must stay. Everything will fall in their places with time,” Alexander Lukashenko stressed.

Talking about the creation of the Union State, Alexander Lukashenko recalled that there were plans to involve Ukraine. “We were meaning the union of three. Back then. But now we have what we have,” he noted.

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