BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/11/2006

Putin, Lukashenko begin talks

MOSCOW, November 10 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has begun talks with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who arrived in Russia on Friday on a short working visit.

The Kremlin notes an active political dialogue between Russia and Belarus, which is maintained at top and high levels. This year alone, there were seven meetings between the Russian and Belarussian presidents, as well as sessions of the Supreme State Council and the Council of Ministers of the Union State.

Union State is one of the top issues for discussion at meetings between Putin and Lukashenko. The leaders do not conceal the fact that they have disagreements in it.

During the recent televised question and answer session with Russian citizens, Putin acknowledged that Lukashenko "is a consistent supporter of the Union State," but differs from him in the sequence of moves toward the integration.

Putin is likely to raise issues of energy cooperation. In particular, he may express concern over the fact that the volume of Russian oil supplies to Belarus exceed the republic's actual needs by several times.

Oil is supplied duty-free to Belarus. The republic refines it to exports to third countries, with all tax revenues going to the Belarussian budget, which causes tremendous losses to Russia.

In addition, Moscow is opposed to politicizing gas talks with Belarus, viewing it as pressure on the negotiators.

"It is planned to discuss interaction within the framework of integration bodies in CIS space, including in the context of preparations for the upcoming meeting between the CIS leaders in Minsk on November 28," a Kremlin official noted.

In the opinion of the Kremlin official, bilateral relations rest on solid legal groundwork, with more than 120 agreements and accords in effect which ensure close interaction in the migration policy, military sphere, security and humanitarian and cultural cooperation.

Bilateral trade and economic relations have been developing dynamically: two-way trade is expected to reach a record high of 20 billion dollars /versus 15.8 billion dollars in 2005/.

Trade turnover grew 30.7 percent in January through September from the same period last year. Regional cooperation made a considerable contribution to it. At present, more than 80 Russian provinces maintain active economic links with Belarus.

Source:

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10971317&PageNum=0