SOCHI, June 10. /TASS/. Moscow and Minsk have worked out special practices of cooperation while implementing the 28 union state programs, State Secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev has said.
"The practices that have been worked out by now are also an important achievement. These practices are about interaction, unconditional respect to each other’s interests and arguments, of readiness to hear out proposals and jointly put them into practice," told TASS on the sidelines of the Third Eurasian Congress in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
Mezentsev added that the level of cooperation, reached after the Union State started to implement its 28 joint programs aimed at bringing economic integration to a new level, was a distinctive trait of relations between Moscow and Minsk.
The state secretary reiterated that Russia and Belarus have fully completed 10 out of the 28 programs.
The Treaty establishing the Union State was signed on December 8, 1999, by Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Alexander Lukashenko. The Treaty entered into effect on January 26, 2000, and lasts indefinitely. According to the document, the process of integration within the Union State implies the establishment of a single economic space, common currency, unification of energy systems, synchronization of trade and customs policies, establishment of a single legal system, among other things. At the same time, both countries retain their sovereignty, territorial integrity, system of government, constitution, state symbols and membership in international organizations.
At their talks in Moscow on September 9, 2021, Putin and Lukashenko agreed on 28 union programs for further integration of the two countries. These programs were approved by the Union State’s Council of Ministers in Minsk on the following day. Among other things, Moscow and Minsk agreed to pursue a common macroeconomic policy, harmonize their monetary and credit policies, and create a common payment space on the territory of the Union State.