VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Sergei Sidorsky: Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, friends,
Allow me to welcome you on behalf of the Belarusian government to the hospitable town of Brest in the western part of our country, on the western border of the Union State.
Our experts have been working tirelessly to implement the agreements reached at the meeting of the Supreme Council of the Union State in Moscow on December 10, 2009.
Dialogue between the two prime ministers facilitated this constructive work. We, the two prime ministers, contributed to the efforts of our experts by speaking by telephone and sending personal messages to check up on their work in carrying out the directives we had planned to fulfil in the near future, including at today's meeting of the Union State.
An active exchange of opinion allowed us to draw up a pertinent agenda for today's meeting of the Union State and for our bilateral meeting.
Mr Prime Minister, in a follow-up to the messages you sent while preparing for the meeting of the government of the Union State, we suggest another exchange of opinion on the progress in implementing the Russian-Belarusian economic agreements and developing proposals to speed up this work and the implementation of these agreements.
Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to emphasise that Belarus is eager to discuss joint projects to expand our industrial cooperation and create joint petrochemical, energy and manufacturing industrial complexes.
In our view, our main objective is to find mutually acceptable solutions that would reinvigorate our trade and economic relations and restore bilateral trade to the pre-recessionary level of 2008, when it reached $34 billion.
This year we could restore the bilateral trade connections that were lost in the difficult year of 2009. We hope to develop effective methods to counter the negative effects of the global downturn on our countries' industries.
Today we could discuss several areas for cooperation in 2010, including increasing cooperation between our companies, our shared efforts to increase the competitiveness of our manufacturing, the establishment of new production facilities - Russia and Belarus currently have six large industrial groups - and a common approach for supporting manufacturers in these industries.
Overall, we have worked out a plan on the bilateral level and made progress in building up the external border of the Union State in the west, which you visited today, Mr Prime Minister. We will take concrete steps to accomplish this objective initiated by Russia and Belarus this year. We are willing to make every effort to become the core of the integration of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, and carry out this exacting work within the framework of the Customs Union and the future common economic space, which we are determined to establish with the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan in the years ahead.
I would like to welcome you again. Thank you, Mr Prime Minister, for the opportunity to meet in the Belarusian town of Brest today.
Vladimir Putin: First of all, I would like to thank you, Mr Prime Minister, as well as our colleagues for your invitation to Brest. This meeting is particularly symbolic in light of the upcoming milestone for both of our countries, the 65th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War.
Brest was the place where the war began for our fathers and grandfathers. Brest is associated with the heroism of the Soviet people and is one of the most vivid examples of devotion to the Fatherland, self-sacrifice and heroism.
The Great Patriotic War started here, as well as the Red Army's road to Berlin. It is fitting that we have met here today to discuss the evolution of the Union State and the future of the Customs Union. Belarus is, always has been and always will be our strategic partner and our special partner in every sense. It is impossible to enumerate all the areas where our interests coincide.
However, we could not escape the effects of the global economic developments in 2009. Unfortunately, bilateral trade fell significantly last year. Nevertheless, the first months of this year and even the last month of 2009 saw considerable growth. On the whole, our trade rose by 17% in the first two months of this year, while Belarusian exports to the Russian Federation grew by some 40%.
There are still some disparities, but the accelerating increase in Belarusian exports to Russia is obvious, which is a good sign, promising economic recovery and an increase in trade.
We visited one of the border checkpoints today, Kozlovichi, which I must admit truly impressed me. I would like to thank you for organising this work so effectively and for achieving such good results.
The head of customs reported that a shipment of illegal drugs was seized on the Warsaw-Moscow train just a few days ago. Those drugs were obviously destined for consumers in Russia. This is one concrete example of law-enforcement agencies' practical contribution to our work.
As for economic activity, a secure external customs border is indispensable for the effective functioning of the integration association we are creating.
I would like to thank you again for inviting me to this city. I am confident that our discussions will be substantive and productive. Thank you very much.
