Lukashenka: EaEU creation is just the beginning of political and military integration


The Eurasian Economic Union will go for political and military integration in the future, Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka said on June, 5 during his meeting with Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia Valentina Matviyenko and heads of the administrations of the Russian regions, who took part in the first forum of Belarusian and Russian regions.

‘I said — and the West is very much concerned about it — that we will go for political and military integration within the framework of the union because economy is the foundation of everything. If there is economy, it unites people if it is the foundation, we will surely go for the protection of this economy and interests, primarily economic ones,’ state-run news agency BelTA quoted Mr Lukashenka as saying.

Some people say that the Union State of Belarus and Russia is no longer needed, the Belarusian leader stressed. The matter of the Union State’s further existence will be raised when the Eurasian Economic Union has reached the level of integration that the Union State enjoys now, he stated. ‘We are not there yet,’ Mr Lukashenka said.

‘We are often criticized particularly in Russia by people, who claim that Lukashenka is displeased with something and has secured a bargain. I didn’t bargain for anything. Whether I was displeased or not… Certainly, I was because we initially set out to create a union without exemptions and restrictions. We wanted to create something like a single state at least as far as economic matters are concerned. But when we got close to dealing with these issues, some problems became irresolvable. It is an open secret that it was primarily true for the Russian Federation,’ the President noted.

He reminded that many agreements had been downgraded from the trilateral level to the bilateral one. ‘Therefore, on some matters we even moved away from the Customs Union. And we, the three presidents, openly admitted doing so,’ Mr Lukashenka added.

‘We were forced to delay the resolution of many issues all the way till 2025. I criticized the idea. It is my only manifestation of displeasure. We had agreed that no exemptions and restrictions would be allowed but then they cropped up and big ones. It lessened the appeal of the union but we resolutely decided that by 2025, which means not in 2025 but much earlier, we will resolve these problems,’ the President said.

www.belsat.eu/en, via BelTA

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