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Kremlin says Russian air base in Belarus is not on agenda now

The leaders of Russia and Belarus are to hold a meeting on Wednesday

© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

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MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there have been no particular plans to deploy a Russian air base in Belarus and this issue is not on the agenda of Wednesday’s meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

"There is no such issue. As for bases, there have been no any particular plans. That’s why now, in this case, there is no such issue on the agenda," Peskov told reporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2015 instructed the Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry to enter negotiations with Belarus and to sign an agreement on creating a Russian airbase in the country’s territory. As the Russian government said earlier, the agreement would contribute to establishing a joint defense of the Union State’s border in the air space and to create an integral regional air defense system of Russia and Belarus.

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Russian military bases abroad

On Wednesday, the Russian president is due to visit Minsk to take part in a plenary session of the forums of Russian and Belarusian regions. Ahead of it, Putin will hold a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart. The sides plan to discuss the implementation of decisions taken in February at the session of the Supreme State Council of the Union State in Minsk and other issues of the Russian-Belarusian relations.

The leaders will also exchange views on the outcome of the session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Kazakhstan’s Astana on May 31 and the prospects for further expansion of integrational cooperation in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union.

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