Mikhail Mishustin and Roman Golovchenko made statements for the press following the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State.
From the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin and Roman Golovchenko make statements for the press following the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State
Mikhail Mishustin: Colleagues and journalists,
First, I would like to thank Mr Golovchenko and our Belarusian
partners for the warm reception and excellent organisation of today’s event.
The meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union
State has just ended. The main result is that the council has approved the plan
to increase integration through the 28 union programmes. All of them have been endorsed.
These programmes clearly determine our cooperation in most areas of joint
activity. They include industry, energy, finances and the agro-industrial
sector. The programmes provide for a harmonisation in our approaches to
macroeconomics, tax and customs regulations and the monetary policy in general.
They concern the transport market, product marking, payment systems, veterinary
and phytosanitary control, protection of consumer rights and unification of the
laws in the social and labour sphere.
Following the instructions of our presidents – Vladimir
Putin and Alexander Lukashenko – we adopted a joint
statement by the prime ministers of Russia and Belarus. In this statement, we described the main goals for the Union State’s
development. This statement has been published for everyone to learn more about
the details. We hope the Supreme State Council of the Union State will endorse
the decisions approved today.
We have a common goal – to achieve economic growth and
increase the living standards of our people while preserving the sovereignty of
our countries, regardless of the growing difficulties in the external
environment. Everyone will benefit from the further integration of the Union
State. Entrepreneurs will receive new opportunities for doing business and better
conditions for launching promising projects in industry, transport, energy and
many other areas.
Naturally, deeper integration will improve the wellbeing
of the people in the Union State. We are creating equal opportunities for work,
social support and access to education. It is no less important to enable people
to travel comfortably inside the Union State. Considering the epidemiological situation,
we made a decision (the President of Russia spoke about it yesterday) to resume
air traffic between Russia and Belarus on a full scale. Soon our people will be
able to fly without restrictions to Russian and Belarusian airports that are open
to international flights.
The current meeting took place in a sincere and
constructive atmosphere, thereby confirming our common desire to promote integration.
I am confident that we will carry out all the plans we have made in full – and
they are very ambitious. Both Russia and its Belarusian partners are ready for active
joint efforts. Together, we will find the best solutions to the most
complicated issues proceeding from mutual benefit and the fraternal character
of our long-standing relations. This will allow us to fully reveal the creative
potential of the Treaty on the Creation of the Union State.
Thank you.
Mr Golovchenko, please, the floor is yours.
Roman Golovchenko: Esteemed
journalists,
My colleague, the Prime Minister of the Russian
Government, has outlined very clearly and succinctly the results of the
activities of the Belarusian and Russian governments over more than two years
aimed at building a Union State, creating a unique and viable integration model
of a powerful potential. While ensuring the unconditional preservation of the
sovereignty of Belarus and Russia, this model creates the necessary conditions
for dynamic economic development, increases our common competitiveness and
allows us to coordinate and focus our efforts on upholding historical and moral
values that are common to our fraternal nations.
As my colleague has said, the key goal of integration
is to increase the living standards of our people by promoting the stable economic
development of Belarus and Russia. The economy is the decisive factor for the
effective development of all other areas of bilateral cooperation, and we have
already achieved much in this regard.
The successful operation of 2,400 joint ventures has
been ensured by the harmonious complementarity of our economies. Belarus
occupies leading positions in supplying the Russian market with agricultural
and food products, high technology machines and equipment. The Russian
Federation accounts for about half of all our domestic trade. In turn, supplies
from our strategic ally provide considerable amounts of raw materials and
component parts for the export of our joint products to third countries.
In general, this is a reliable guarantee of the steady
functioning of the national economic sector in conditions of external
turbulence. This complementarity and our substantial trade – $18 billion in the
first half of this year – dictates the need to synchronise our sectoral
economic strategies, remove administrative barriers and create comfortable and
understandable conditions for businesses in both countries.
Today, we have taken yet another very important step
towards creating the foundations for a functional common economic space from
Minsk to Vladivostok by 2024. We have approved the main guidelines for implementing
the provisions of the Treaty on the Creation of the Union State in 2021-2023
and the 28 union programmes. Much has already been said today about these
programmes that will be submitted for endorsement by the Supreme State Council.
We believe the implementation of these programmes will
become a powerful impetus for increasing trade, developing joint ventures and
taking coordinated measures to support national manufacturers.
