MINSK, February 11./TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday spoke out in favor of economic integration with Russia on equal conditions, noting that both countries would benefit from that.
"Belarus will be advocating economic integration with the Russian Federation. We openly declare today that we are ready for further substantive work to improve inter-sectoral cooperation within the Union State with respect for mutual interests and on the basis of equality of the two members of the Union," the Belarusian leader said in the opening remarks at the All Belarusian People’s Assembly.
"Equal conditions of management, energy consumption, access to the markets and participation in state procurement are of vital necessity," the president said. "There is no gratuitous gas and oil or free financial resources," he went on to say. "There is one thing we need - equal conditions for business entities, and then we will solve all problems," the president emphasized.
Lukashenko stressed that cooperation with Russia, including support for Belarus through loans, is not charity, since Belarus is paying one billion dollars to Russia yearly on loans that it receives and always returns timely. "As long as we are together with Russia it is not alone either. I take it as a premise that Belarus will also remain an absolute priority for Russia. I am sure that it will understand our bid to cooperate with other countries," the president said.
He referred to the Union of Russia and Belarus as "advanced integration," reiterating the results of the 1995 referendum when Belarusian people spoke in favor of integration. Running ahead of the story, I will say that in broad-scale opinion polls [ahead of the People’s Assembly], we asked people what they thought about integration with Russia. About 71% spoke in favor of integration," the Belarusian leader stressed.