Draft program of integration with Russia handed over to Lukashenko for approval
The press secretary of the Belarusian Prime Minister Alexandra Isaeva said that the draft action program on integration with Russia that was prepared by the Belarussian government had been handed for approval to the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, reports RBC news agency.
The integration of countries is based on the Treaty on the Creation of a Union State, which was signed in 1999. In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow and Minsk would choose acceptable ways for both countries to develop the integration. In early August, Lukashenko instructed the government to speed up the approval of the integration program with Russia. Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin said that the parties have reached agreements and almost eliminated fundamental differences.
In late August, Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Rumas promised to publish a draft program of integration with Russia. According to him, this was necessary to remove concerns about the sovereignty of the country. Rumas noted that by November 1, the public authorities should develop 28 "road maps" for various sectors of the economy.
The issue of integration within the Union State has been actively discussed since March. Then Lukashenko proposed to include Russia in Belarus, noting that Moscow has no plans to absorb the neighboring Republic. In April, Bloomberg, citing sources in the Kremlin, reported that Putin could head the Union State. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov called the information "a fiction" and noted that it has nothing to do with real discussions.