Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko: Belarus, Russia are about to reboot joint economic space

MINSK, 4 November (BelTA) - Belarus and Russia are about to reboot the joint economic space, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he opened a videoconference meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, BelTA has learned.

"Life does not stand still. All of us are more or less aware of the need to move forward on the path towards developing the Union State. Thus, we protect the interests of Belarus and Russia in the global space," the president said.

In 2019 the leaders of Belarus and Russia tasked the governments with assessing the results of the Union State integration and determining steps to deepen it. This work has resulted in the draft guidelines to implement the Union State Treaty in 2021-2023. After their approval by the Supreme State Council, the governments will take measures to implement a number of conceptual solutions within two years, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.

"In fact, we are about to reboot the joint economic space. It involves the introduction of modern technologies, styles and methods of decision-making," the head of state said.

According to him, this work should result in the formation of a qualitatively new environment for trade of goods and services, the joint industry markets and unified financial, tax, credit, industrial and other policies.

“There is a need to raise the cooperation between public administration bodies to a new level, instruct them to address issues of bilateral relations as a matter of priority, taking into account mutual interests. At the same time, I want to warn governments against theorizing much. We should see the practical impact of these decisions soon, as they say, tomorrow. First of all, we are talking about the implementation of major joint projects. We already have positive examples, such as projects in nuclear energy and space exploration," the president said.

Belarus and Russia have reached agreements on other promising areas of joint work. These are the projects on manned cosmonautics and the development of a new ultra-high-resolution Earth sensing satellite, projects in the field of design and production of electronic components.

Aleksandr Lukashenko asked the Standing Committee of the Union State to take these issues under special control. "All agreements reached by the presidents in such important promising areas should be formalized through the relevant decisions of the Union State bodies," the head of state emphasized.

The president is convinced that all the documents adopted at the meeting of the Supreme State Council reaffirm that there is a huge potential for the further development of the Union State. "A lot of work is ahead of us, but I am sure that everything that we have planned will be implemented in full for the benefit of our countries and peoples, which corresponds to the Union State goals and principles," the Belarusian leader summed up.

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