Belarus is interested in new integration projects with Russia

“A quarter of a century is a good time span to take stock of what has been done and to make plans for the future. If you look back at this period, you will see that the fundamental objectives set by the presidents when signing the first treaty and all subsequent documents are being successfully implemented. The integration process is still underway. We are trying to quantify the outcomes of our cooperation in order to understand how much we have achieved,” Dmitry Krutoi said.

The official listed the main areas of cooperation in the economic dimension. “This is foreign trade: our trade (both our export to Russia and import from Russia) soared six times over the 25 years. It seems to me that this is quite impressive. The trade started out from $5 billion, last year it reached $30 billion. It is clear that the pandemic was quite consequential for our trade. However, the trade with Russia dropped insignificantly compared to our trade with other countries,” he said.

Investment is another important avenue of cooperation. The Russian Federation is the number one investor in Belarus. At present 2,400 companies with Russian capital operate in Belarus. Their number has increased quite dramatically over the 25 years. According to Dmitry Krutoi, this is attributed to comfortable working conditions: the same language, similar legislation, understandable investment regimes.

“There are things that are often presented in a negative light - barriers, obstacles in our domestic market. However, their impact on the formation of the common economic space is insignificant. The common economic space is defined by our treaty as an ultimate goal. More than 30 assembly factories operate in Russia. Our biggest investment projects include space, the Belarusian nuclear power plant, etc. The main goal of today's' panel discussions is to identify new possible integration projects,” Dmitry Krutoi added.

He recalled that 5-7 years ago there were ambitious plans to launch joint projects between Belarusian and Russian enterprises, including MAZ and KamAZ, Grodno-Azot and EuroChem, Peleng and Roscosmos, etc. None of them has translated into joint ventures, and this topic occasionally pops up in the media. “I want to say that these companies interact very closely. However, if such initiatives materialize, especially when it comes to grass-routes projects, this will be a great boost to the bilateral relations,” Dmitry Krutoi stressed.

The third dimension is inter-regional cooperation: the Forum of Regions, direct agreements between the regions of the Russian Federation and Belarusian cities and regions. “I believe that the regional dimension is the most important thing in our union today,” he added.

On 2 April, the Palace of the Republic in Minsk is hosting the solemn meeting “The Union State: New opportunities” to mark the Day of Unity of the Peoples of Belarus and Russia. The event has brought together heads of government authorities, the Union State Standing Committee and its office in Minsk, public associations, and other organizations. Participants from Moscow have joined the event via videoconferencing.

The agenda of the meeting includes the discussions “Common legal space, defense, and security as the basis of the Union States”, “Economic potential of the Union State: Status and prospects”, “Social projects and the youth as a driver of innovative development of the Union State”.