Opinions & Interviews

MOSCOW, 25 February (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia need to search for new joint points for economic growth, Belarusian Premier Andrei Kobyakov said as he met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on 24 February, BelTA has learned.

According to Andrei Kobyakov, last year’s results can not be considered satisfactory in terms of the mutual trade denominated in the foreign currency. “At the same time the economic ties have not been destroyed, they have been developing,” he said.

The Belarusian head of government noted that there are new opportunities for economic growth. “The action plan of the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation to create additional conditions for the development of the trade and economic cooperation, which we signed a year ago, has proved efficient. It would be great to have more but it worked as it should under the current conditions,” he said. The goal of Belarus and Russia, he stressed, is to look where the two countries can add “in order for our people, our countries to have a good economic effect.”

According to Andrei Kobyakov, the Supreme State Council of the Union State will consider a number of important issues at its session in Minsk. “I would like to note that despite the fact that our two countries are the founders of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Union State has always been the format where the most difficult economic plans of ours and our partners were tested,” said the Belarusian PM. In his words, the agreements Minsk and Moscow come at “can be used by our partners to develop trade and economic cooperation in the Eurasian Economic Union.”

In turn, Dmitry Medvedev noted that Russia and Belarus need to coordinate their joint economic policy. In his words, it is essential to outline events for the future bilateral contacts. “Taking into account that at present there are a lot of negative events and difficult trends in the economy of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, we should focus on the coordination of the joint economic policy,” said Dmitry Medvedev.

In his words, Moscow and Minsk have always coordinated the economic policy and today the importance of this has increased. “We need to do it in order to minimize the affect of all the negative economic factors on the life and social security of our people,” said the Russian Premier.