Putin: Integration brings tangible benefits to people of Belarus, Russia

“Integration actually brings tangible benefits to the citizens of both our countries, contributing to the improvement of their quality of life and wellbeing. This is convincing evidence of the correctness of the strategic course we have chosen for comprehensive cooperation and the formation of a common economic, humanitarian and defense space of Russia and Belarus,” the Russian leader said.

Vladimir Putin emphasized the special nature of the current meeting of the Supreme State Council, which marked the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Union State Treaty. “This is a merit of the first President of the Russian Federation Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin and Aleksandr Grigoriyevich Lukashenko. This is a truly fundamental document, under which Russia and Belarus have jointly done large-scale work over the past quarter of the century. I mean, first of all, the deepening of integration in the social, economic and humanitarian areas, unification of the legislation of the two countries, as well as the measures taken to reliably ensure common defense and security,” the Russian president said.

“The main thing is that the Russian-Belarusian relations of alliance and strategic partnership are built on the inviolable principles of friendship and good neighborliness, mutual respect and consideration of each other's interests. Our countries and peoples are united by a common history, family and kinship ties formed between many Russians and Belarusians, adherence to the same moral and spiritual values,” Vladimir Putin emphasized.

In his words, trade and investment exchanges are actively developing within the Union State, multifaceted business contacts and cooperation ties are expanding, and conditions are created for sustainable growth of the two countries' economies. Cooperation in the humanitarian sector is also actively developing.

In general, the decisions of the Supreme State Council on the main areas of cooperation in the Union State for the period of 2024-2026 are successfully being implemented. According to the Russian leader, these are large-scale joint projects and events in key areas such as industry, agriculture, energy, transportation, culture and information policy. Science and education are also at the center of attention.

“About 20% of the planned activities have already been implemented,” the Russian president said. 

In his words, the effectiveness of Belarusian-Russian integration is clearly confirmed by the growing trade. According to the Russian statistics, in January-September trade increased by 8.4%, exceeding $37 billion.

Thus, Russia accounts for more than half of Belarus' foreign trade balance. In turn, Belarus is Russia's fourth trading partner in the world with a share of almost 9%.

Cooperation in the energy sector is also deepening, and the process of developing the unified oil and gas markets is underway. The countries are jointly working on import substitution, and have fine-tuned cooperation in knowledge-intensive industries in the areas of digitalization, informatization and microelectronics.