Belarusian-Russian future relations determined by Union State Treaty

Vladimir Makei said: “The future of our countries is stipulated by the treaty on establishing the Union State, which was signed quite a long time ago, many years ago. We just have to fulfill provisions of this treaty. The treaty says that we are to build the Union State and enable tight mutually beneficial cooperation in various spheres and fields.”

Vladimir Makei noted that the treaty provides for concrete avenues of cooperation and concrete steps, which were not taken in the past. This is why at some point in time both countries had to return to preparing Union State programs, integration enhancement roadmaps in order to implement provisions of this treaty.

Vladimir Makei went on saying: “They provide for creating either joint policies, or coordinated policies, or common policies in concrete spheres and areas of the production sector, agriculture such as the customs policy, the tax policy, and so on and so forth. The purpose is to create common trade and economic space, which I believe will absolutely benefit interests of both states. This is why the structure that will have to appear in the future is stipulated by the treaty on establishing the Union State of Belarus and Russia. We should proceed from that. We have to build normal Belarus-Russia cooperation across the board on a daily basis without artificially accelerating the processes. And then we will see. Life itself, practice itself will demonstrate what format may be produced as a result of this cooperation.”