This has been announced in the joint declaration issued by the participants of the Belarus-Russia Union State Supreme State Council session held in Moscow and headed by the Chairman of the Supreme State Council, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.A bilateral meeting between Mr. Lukashenko and his Russian colleague, Dmitry Medvedev, took place before the session. The two leaders discussed trade-economic collaboration for almost five hours. They also discussed a range of issues which were later considered at the Supreme State Council session, including the formation of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia and the three states’ single economic space.
Because the session coincided with the 10th anniversary of signing the Union State Treaty, Mr. Lukashenko commented in his speech that this document was an important landmark in the new history of the Belarusian-Russian relations and formed the basis of the two states’ strategic partnership. The President stressed the close co-operation between Belarus and Russia in strengthening the defence capability and security, as well as co-ordinating their actions on the international arena. Mr. Lukashenko stressed that the issues on the provision of equal rights for Belarusians in Russia and Russians in Belarus had almost been solved. “I think you’ll agree that Belarus and Russia are unique in offering such conditions for their citizens,” he noted.
Mr. Lukashenko is convinced that it is necessary to consider and prepare proposals for changes to the format and functions of Union State agencies to ensure future co-operation under Customs Union conditions, focusing on the single economic space. In turn, Mr. Medvedev said that Russia has made ‘positive decisions in response to the Belarusian proposals to co-operate over oil’. “This is the most important decision made so far; it creates no problems for the Belarusian side,” he added, but did not specify what decision was discussed.
The Supreme State Council session summed up the progress of the Belarusian-Russian trade-economic collaboration from January-September 2009. Progress towards the minimisation of the global crisis’ consequences was considered and the issues of expanding co-operation over energy and development of bilateral ties between the military and military-technical branches were debated. The Union State budget for 2010 was approved (worth about 5bn Russian roubles), as well as a programme of co-ordinated actions in foreign policy for 2010-2011. The joint work on ensuring equal rights for Belarusian and Russian citizens and the realisation of the Union State’s social development concept until 2010 were discussed. The parties also studied plans to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Great Victory.
The Belarusian and Russian presidents signed a declaration on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Union State Treaty, stating: ‘We intend to continue actively working on forming the single economic area, ensuring free movement of goods, services, capital, workforce, creating equal conditions and guarantees for the economic agents, harmonising and unifying the treaty-legal base, co-ordinating macroeconomic policy, expanding the interregional co-operation, integration into the world economy and strengthening co-operation to provide Union State’s security’.
