Events

MOSCOW, 25 December (BelTA) – The Belarus-Russia Union State requires qualitative modernization given serious progress towards the Eurasian integration, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at the session of the Supreme State Council of the Union State in Moscow, BelTA learned.

According to the Belarusian leader, there is a need to define clearly the functions of the Union State and the future Eurasian Economic Union so that they should do not duplicate each other.

Alexander Lukashenko noted that a range of solutions were tested in the Union State, and they are now successfully implemented in the "troika". "I believe that in the future the Union State should continue performing the role of icebreaker in addressing complex issues," he said.

In general, the Belarusian President praised the intensive development of both the bilateral Belarusian-Russian relations and Eurasian integration. He noted that for the first time in the past few years, the Supreme State Council has gathered for a second meeting during a year.

“In 2013, we continued implementing the joint programs financed from the Union State budget and launched new ones. The ministries and regions continued to interact closely. The cooperation between the military, diplomats and law enforcement has reached the level which is unprecedented for the post-Soviet space,” said Alexander Lukashenko. He stressed that the parties made efforts to strengthen the regional grouping of troops, to reinforce the protection of external borders and air space. In his opinion, this shows how close the cooperation between the two countries is. In this context, the President of Belarus cited the successful joint Belarusian-Russian exercises Zapad-2013.

Alexander Lukashenko drew attention to the growth of bilateral trade and development of economic relations against the background of the crisis in the international trade. "Our trade may be less than last year, but still it is almost half a billion dollars above the trade in 2011," the Belarusian leader noted.

“All this may seem mundane and routine. But this is the greatest achievement of our project. We have started to view our closest bilateral cooperation as something quite natural. This is the result of many years of hard work,” said the President of Belarus.