BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
2006-01-25
Russian, Belarusian leaders discuss unified state
BEIJING, Jan. 25 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko were due to meet in St. Petersburg yesterday to discuss the long-planned political and economic union between their two former Soviet republics.
; Lukashenko said that the meeting of the Russian-Belarusian Supreme State Council should result in "concrete decisions" on social policies including pensions and taxes, and that it should focus on the constitution, which is almost ready, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. The council also includes the two countries' prime ministers and parliamentary speakers.
The gazeta.ru website reported that the constitution was unlikely to be agreed and put to a referendum until the conclusion of elections in Belarus and Russia, scheduled for the next three years.
It quoted Russian legislator Vladimir Pligin, a member of the joint constitutional working group, as saying that the structure of the union would resemble the European Union, with rotating chairmen laying to rest speculation that Putin could use the post of union president to continue his rule beyond 2008, when he is required by the Russian constitution to step down after two terms.
But Russia's RIA-Novosti news agency earlier quoted Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, as saying that a referendum on the proposed union state may take place as early as sometime this year.
"I hope that during this year we will be able to hold a referendum on a constitutional act," RIA-Novosti quoted Gryzlov as saying.
"We can confidently say that the process of developing the Union is moving in the right direction," Gryzlov said.
The Russia-Belarus union has remained largely on the drawing board despite regular summits. But shared concern over the "colour revolutions" that brought Western-leaning leaders to power in Ukraine and Georgia has brought Russia and Belarus closer together recently.
Lukashenko stands for re-election in March and has vowed that there will be no revolution in his country.
A meeting will also take place today of the Interstate Council of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC), a body bringing together Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Moldova. Armenia currently has observer status of the organization.
The EAEC was founded on October 10, 2000. It major objectives include full-scale customs union and a common market, the harmonization of customs tariffs and the establishment of the general rules of trade in goods and in services and of their access to the domestic markets.
It was formally created when the treaty was finally ratified in May 2001.
Today's meeting will discuss granting Uzbekistan membership of the body and integration of the Central Asian Co-operation Organization in the EAEC.
(Source: China Daily)
Source:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/25/content_4096731.htm
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