Russian leader promises payment of third tranche of EurAsEC loan


Vladimir Putin made a two-day visit to Belarus

Following the official welcoming ceremony, the President of Russia and the President of Belarus had a one-on-one discussion. The two presidents talked about current issues on the bilateral agenda, various aspects of developing integration processes within the framework of the Customs Union and Common Economic Space, and prospects for creating the Eurasian Union.

During talks with participation of their delegations, the two leaders discussed concrete measures for developing trade and economic cooperation. Special attention was given to issues of jointly implementing major investment projects. In particular, the discussion focused on preparatory work to construct a nuclear power plant in Belarus.

“In the past, over a short period of time we provided direct assistance to Belarus via various channels totalling about five billion dollars, and I must say that we see how Belarusian leadership and the economic bloc in the Government of Belarus are taking complicated but absolutely correct decisions to improve the economic situation. Naturally, we presume that the results the Belarusian economy is now starting to demonstrate will have a large-scale impact in the near future. We can see that right now, the Belarusian economy runs a budget surplus. Naturally, this is a very good indicator,” the Russian president noted.

“Our common decisions on energy resources played their role as well. After all, we went from $286 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters of gas last year to $165.5 this year. We decreased prices nearly two-fold,” he stressed.

“During the talks, we had a detailed discussion of our prospects for developing economic ties. I want to let you know that we made a decision to offer the third credit tranche from the EurAsEC anti-crisis fund and we will begin detailed talks about a fourth tranche. We were pleased to note that this is possible, in a time-efficient and expedient manner, taking into account the positive dynamics of the Belarusian economy,” Vladimir Putin said while making a statement for the press.

The Russian leader that potential directions for investment cooperation are considered, including the creation of the Rosbelavto holding company, based on KAMAZ and MAZ assets. He expressed confidence that coming to an agreement will be a very good example for other sectors of the real economy.

“I also want to note our common views on current issues on the international agenda. Mr Lukashenko and I spoke about this, and we will continue the discussion in an informal setting. I am certain that Russian-Belarusian relations have a great future,” Vladimir Putin stated.

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