A. Lukashenko and D. Medvedev agreed to resolve existing issues in Belarusian-Russian relations in the near future.
23/08/20110 views
23 August, Minsk /BELTA correspondent/. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev have agreed to resolve existing issues in Belarusian-Russian relations in the near future. This agreement was reached during a meeting of the heads of state on 22 August in Sochi, the press service of the Belarusian leader reported.
Alexander Lukashenko and Dmitry Medvedev communicated for about two and a half hours. During this time, the heads of state discussed a number of serious issues and communicated in an informal setting.
The leaders of the two countries took a critical approach to assessing the state of Belarusian-Russian relations and stated that they do not correspond to the status of strategic partnership. Specific problems were identified, which, by mutual agreement, should be resolved in the near future. The presidents agreed that, starting from this meeting, they would take a number of practical steps to restore the high level of partnership between the two countries.
In this regard, the head of the Russian state particularly emphasized that Belarusians and Russians are fraternal peoples, bound by close ties, and know what needs to be done to prevent a rupture of fraternal relations.
The meeting discussed the entire range of bilateral relations, including within the framework of integration associations.
The President of Belarus specifically noted the need to ensure the unconditional full functioning of the Unified Economic Space of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia from January 1, 2012. Belarus has incurred significant costs by joining this project, but the idea of the UES was consciously supported, as it is important to create equal conditions for enterprises and citizens in this space.
The Russian President expressed principled agreement with the position of his Belarusian counterpart.
During the conversation, the topic of union building was discussed. The heads of state spoke about the need to intensify relations within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. They preliminarily agreed to hold the Supreme State Council of the Union State in November of this year. The heads of presidential administrations have been tasked with the specific elaboration of this issue.
The construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus was discussed. Following the conversation, instructions were given to the head of the Russian state corporation for atomic energy "Rosatom", Sergey Kiriyenko, to ensure the signing of all relevant agreements on construction and the allocation of credit resources in September of this year, following the scheme and conditions adopted by the Russian side during the construction of the nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region.
The presidents also substantively discussed a number of other specific issues of Belarusian-Russian cooperation.
Developing the conversation held at the informal summit of the heads of state – participants of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Astana, Alexander Lukashenko and Dmitry Medvedev discussed the effectiveness of the CSTO's functioning. In particular, measures to equip the Collective Operational Response Forces with modern armaments, the conditions for the functioning of foreign military bases on the territory of the member states of the organization, issues of deploying CSTO formations in the CSTO responsibility zone, as well as the regulations for decision-making within the organization, taking into account the special position of Uzbekistan, were discussed in detail.
It is expected that these proposals will be formalized in the form of relevant decisions at the next session of the CSTO Collective Security Council in December of this year.
The presidents paid great attention to issues of the international situation, including the situation in the Middle East and Europe.
Alexander Lukashenko and Dmitry Medvedev discussed in detail the prospects for cooperation of the countries with Ukraine.
The President of Belarus informed his Russian counterpart in detail about the results of the visit of the Belarusian delegation to Qatar and the agreements reached during the negotiations. Alexander Lukashenko also informed Dmitry Medvedev about the prospects for cooperation with Venezuela.
The meeting of the presidents took place in an open, friendly, and constructive atmosphere.-0-
BELTA