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Moscow and Minsk are moving towards single industrial policy, Putin says

The countries are moving in the right direction when creating an economic basis for integration, Russian President said

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/. Russia and Belarus are moving towards a single industrial policy, common access to government procurement and government orders, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after the talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow on Thursday.

The Russian leader noted that the parties managed to reach agreements on a common macroeconomic policy, on the integration of payment systems, deepening cooperation in information security, in customs, tax, energy and other areas.

"This allowed us to agree on something else - to agree that we are moving to a single industrial policy and access to government procurement and government orders," Putin said.

According to him, this is already "a transition to absolute concrete work in these areas."

"We argued for a long time. I must say that the Belarusian partners are difficult negotiators. But everything is gradually being sorted out," the Russian President said.

Right integration path

Russia and Belarus are moving in the right direction when creating an economic basis for integration, Putin said.

"I am sure we are on the right track," the Russian leader said.

According to him, when building the Union State of Russia and Belarus, the sodes should have started with what was agreed now, such as creating an economic basis of the bilateral relations. "The rest is a political construct," Putin added.

"Once we have done what we just agreed on, then we will be able to say that we are ready for the next steps but this is a case for the future. We will have a look because the situation changes and changes fast," the Russian president said.