MINSK, December 13. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that the work to deepen Belarusian-Russian integration will bring about the existence of two sovereign states within a common economic space.

"This is the future of our union. In other words, we wish to make further progress along the main tracks and to unify the processes underway within the union space," the Belarusian leader said in an interview to the Turkish television broadcaster TRT, according to extracts the BelTA news agency quoted on Monday. "This will bring about the existence of two sovereign states within a single economic space."

Lukashenko recalled the union programs for deepening Belarusian-Russian integration that had been authorized just recently. Moscow and Minsk have been conducting a common foreign policy. They share a common defense space. In fact, they have a common army, he stressed.

"We have made very serious progress in granting equal rights to the citizens of Belarus and Russia. Between Russians and Belarusians there are practically no discrepancies in terms of education, health care, or humanitarian and cultural space. We have created equal conditions for our people," Lukashenko said.

On November 4, the presidents of Russia and Belarus at a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State approved 28 union programs for unification of national legislations in various fields of the economy and for equalizing conditions for doing business, building common financial and energy markets and a transport space. Shaping and implementing common industrial and farming policies are among the priority goals.