Aleksandr Lukashenko meets with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

The three countries have accomplished a lot by signing the treaty. President of the Republic of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Minsk on 30 May.

“Not everyone thought we would be able to overcome various kinds of barriers, hindrances, and differences of opinion along the way. But we have managed to overcome these barriers and differences and managed to sign the treaty yesterday,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.

The Belarusian President admitted that there were a number of issues during the preparation of the document. The three countries were unable to resolve the issues on a trilateral level and therefore the issues were moved to the bilateral level. In particular, those issues concerned oil supplies to Belarus, oil duties, cabotage transportation, and automobiles. “All the matters concerning oil and natural gas are settled at present. We have made a very respectable step regarding oil duties. We have agreed that in the future we will work to clean up the field,” the President stressed.

Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned Dmitry Medvedev’s special contribution to reaching the agreement. He said: “If we hadn’t met at premises of the Russian government back then [Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on 7 May], it would have been very difficult for us to deal with this issue. At best it would have taken a considerable amount of time. On behalf of the Belarusian nation I would like to thank you for this resolute step, for your ability to make the decision at the top level. We managed to work without any problems during the signing of the treaty”.

Addressing the Belarusian head of state and evaluating the fact that the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty has been signed, Dmitry Medvedev said: “The result has been secured and you are absolutely correct in saying our countries welcome the fact. Some parties may not like it a lot. But we understand that only by promoting this kind of integration we can secure brand new development of our economies, our countries, and hence the new quality of life for our people, which is the overarching value for any government”.

Dmitry Medvedev stressed Aleksandr Lukashenko’s personal contribution to integration processes. “Even when we discussed some issues, argued about something, I always understood that the president of the Republic of Belarus sincerely wants this integration,” he said.

The Russian Prime Minister also congratulated Belarus on the brilliant organization of the ice hockey world championship: “I saw what it looked like, how it was organized, saw the fans cheering. It was a world-level competition by all means”.