MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. The Russian and Belarusian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, will approve new integration programs for 2024-2026 at a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State on Monday, Alexey Polishchuk, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second Department of the CIS Countries said in an interview with TASS.
"The past year has confirmed that Belarus is our closest ally and brotherly republic, which has a unique place in Russia's foreign policy agenda," he said when asked about the future of the Union State.
"In 2023, we managed to make serious progress in strengthening integration within the Union State. Thanks to the implementation of 28 Union programs approved in 2021, significant progress was made in bringing closer the legislations of our countries in key areas of economic activity and in shaping a common socio-economic space," the diplomat said.
"A new package of integration decisions for the next three-year period -'The main tracks in the implementation of the provisions of the Treaty on the Establishment of the Union State for 2024-2026' - has been devised. It is expected to be approved at the meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State, which will be held shortly," Polishchuk added.
Focusing on the last year’s results in terms of relations with Belarus, Polishchuk noted that Moscow and Minsk paid considerable attention to working out joint measures to counteract the negative consequences of illegitimate Western sanctions. "Owing to such measures, last year saw a significant increase in mutual trade, approaching a record $50 billion. Uninterrupted transit of Belarusian exports to friendly states using the Russian transport infrastructure was established. New import-substituting cooperation projects were launched in industry - in agricultural and heavy engineering, machine-tool industry, aircraft building, microelectronics, and arms production. On November 1, 2023, the largest-scale joint project - the construction of the Belarusian NPP was completed, and its second unit was put into operation," the diplomat said.
In addition, the parties coordinated plans to give a boost to work to shape a common cultural, humanitarian, scientific, educational and migration space, Polishchuk stressed. "Special attention was paid to patriotic education of youth and joint preservation of historical memory," he went on to say.
"Interregional ties have reached an unprecedented level. In 2023, about 90 delegations from Russian regions visited Belarus, and 96 Belarusian official delegations and 136 business delegations visited Russia. In summer, [the Russian city of ] Ufa successfully hosted the 10th anniversary forum of the regions of Russia and Belarus, where about 100 documents on cooperation were signed as well as contracts worth a record 110 billion Russian rubles ($122,883,197)," he said.