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Russia plans to foster multifaceted cooperation with Belarus, Putin says

According to the Russian leader, now an active effort is underway on harmonizing programs on unification of legislation in the countries in various fields

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/. Moscow will keep developing multifaceted relations with Minsk and building the Union State, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the online forum of Russian and Belarusian regions on Thursday.

"Russia is determined to further consistently develop multifaceted relations with the Republic of Belarus, focus on building our common Union State and in a broader sense to enhance integration processes on the Eurasian space, and we will do this also in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization," Putin said.

According to the Russian leader, now an active effort is underway on harmonizing programs on unification of legislation in the countries in various fields, including tax and customs. "Their implementation will allow to provide equal conditions of activity for companies, complete the creation of single financial, energy markets and transport space and also form common industrial, agricultural and digital policies," the president stated.

Putin recalled that this April marked the 25th anniversary since the signing of the Treaty on Establishing the Community of Russia and Belarus, the predecessor of the Treaty on the Creation of a Union State. The president emphasized that the economies of Russia and Belarus are deeply interconnected.

"Our country is a key foreign investor of the Republic of Belarus, this is 30% of foreign investments, and some 2,400 Russian companies are working on the Belarusian market, and Russia accounts for nearly half of the entire Belarusian foreign trade," the president stated.

Putin believes that "further development of mutually beneficial Russian-Belarusian ties will be facilitated by a solid package of interregional documents as well as commercial contracts signed in the framework of this forum".

According to the Russian president, "currently a whole range of joint innovative programs and projects are being implemented in such fields as information and computer technologies, geological exploration and energy, genome and medicine research". This year, Belarus also launched production of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.