Events

MINSK, 9 May (BelTA) – Belarus is not going to block the signing of the treaty to establish the Eurasian Economic Union. The statement was made by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on 9 May, BelTA has learned.

According to the President, the issues concerning the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union that had not been settled in the troika format will have to be settled on the bilateral basis. “Yesterday we settled virtually all the issues in the bilateral way. I’ve instructed the government to thoroughly revise all the parts of the treaty in order to have a clear understanding by 29 May of what we are going to sign, how we are signing it, what we will get from this economic union, what future,” remarked the Belarusian leader.

“Some things will be delayed by several years, by up to ten years in some cases. It is definitely a bad thing to do, we didn’t want it. You know our stance: we should build the economic union without exemptions and restrictions. Our partners are not ready, mildly speaking, on all these issues,” noted the head of state.

“We are not going to block the signing of this treaty. If we cannot make a leap forward, we should move on in small steps. We believe in it,” said Alexander Lukashenko.

The President remarked that Belarus had managed to address all the concerns. “But still it has to be understood that we didn’t beg. It was a compromise,” said the head of state. “Belarus’ budget will keep $1.5 billion next year [thanks to the lower volume of export duties on oil products that has to be transferred to the Russian budget]. Then next year Russia will lend $500 million for the sake of supporting the stability on the Belarusian market. This year Belarus will get $2.5 billion [including $2 billion that, the President said, will be transferred soon while $500 million Belarus has already received this year]. It is a major step on the part of Russia with regard to finance but on the other hand we had to make some concessions”.

In particular, Alexander Lukashenko remarked that the Belarusian side had not been satisfied with the approach to medications, alcohol, tobacco products, beer. “We open up too much but it should be understood that we make this step while they make other steps to meet us halfway on other issues. Therefore, those were major compromises, from our point of view they are not always needed today but we do what we can,” remarked the Belarusian leader.

“Therefore, I don’t think we should block the signing of the treaty. Now we are analyzing everything we have agreed on: what we concede and what we get. We will weigh all pros and cons and will sign the treaty on 29 May,” concluded the Belarusian leader.