G. Rapota: Consultations between Russia and Belarus at deputy prime-minister level are to be held in early June

“To start with, we are planning to hold a meeting of the High-Level Group in early June. It concerns Vice Prime Ministers, we are preparing for it now,” said Grigory Rapota. “We are going to discuss specific issues related to trade and economic relations in order to create some regulatory mechanisms aimed to address such issues as provision of bank guarantees when implementing public procurements, as well as elimination of barriers for Belarusian enterprises when accessing electronic trading platforms of the Russian Federation. These issues seem to have been settled, but there are still some minor hiccups that need to be dealt with”.

Mr Rapota noted that the topical issue of bilateral relations was the transit of Belarusian goods across the territory of Russia. “This refers to proper control over transit flows,” he said. “Belarus has no objections, as we also seek to ensure compliance with agreements and international rules”.

The State Secretary of the Union State added that hydrocarbon fuels pricing was high on the agenda. “However, Union State institutions like the High-level Group and others, as a rule, are not involved in working out solutions. Although, maybe, it makes sense to consider a certain formula of hydrocarbons pricing, which should be quite flexible, applicable for years to come and, most importantly, mutually beneficial. It is a very challenging task, but we need to think and work on it”.