Komsomolskaya Pravda: “Putin wants to develop new relations with Belarus”
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has decided that Russia should review its relations with Belarus within the framework of a common economic space.
The next meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State of Russia and Belarus will be held in Minsk on March 15. Russia has started preparing for it. Yesterday Putin met with Secretary of the Union State Pavel Borodin.
The union official told him that the agenda for the upcoming meeting consists of about 40 issues, including discussions of the consequences of the global financial crisis for the Union State and ways to overcome them, even though trade between the two countries grew by 22% and turnover by 50% last year. The ministers will also discuss performance reports on 200 bilateral agreements, as well as energy cooperation.
"Belarus currently receives 95% of its energy from Russia," Borodin said.
Customs relations are among the most painful bilateral problems, because Belarus is taking too long to review its legislation, he said.
Borodin told the prime minister that the ministerial meeting would address issues of agriculture, immigration, military technical cooperation, counterterrorism, and the creation of a common information space. He asked Putin "to issue strict instructions to the (Russian) ministries and departments to thoroughly prepare for the meeting."
"We would also like to recruit your assistance in the matter of medical assistance to the Chernobyl victims, in particular senior citizens and children. You have addressed that issue more than once," Borodin said. "We provide medical assistance to an enormous number of people in Belarus and Russia."
"We will do it," Putin replied and added: "We should hold detailed discussions of economic and social issues, as well as cooperation in other spheres, with our Belarusian colleagues in order to formulate decisions that will allow us to develop comprehensive relations with Belarus, bearing in mind their improvement with a view to creating a common economic space."
Larisa Kaftan
