05 June 2004 08:48
Putin says Russia, Belarus have special relations
SOCHI. June 5 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he Union of Russia and Belarus will not have the
fate of the CIS.
"This year we will likely reach a $15 billion trade turnover with Belarus. Only one country in the world,
Germany has achieved such good results in trade with us," Putin said after meeting with his Belarussian counterpart
in Sochi on Saturday.
"It is a result of special economic relations between Russia and Belarus," he said.
Putin said that with Ukraine Russia has only a 5 billion trade turnover.
"I reiterate: with Belarus, we will soon reach a figure of 15 billion," he said.
At the same time, Putin asked himself the following question: "Can we say that we have fully realized our plans
to create a common economic space in Russia and Belarus and equal conditions for economic entities?" "Not
yet," he answered his own question.
"To do that, we need to be ready for compromise and to look for mutually acceptable decisions," Putin
said.
"This is what our meeting was about. In this meeting, we made another step forward," he said.
Putin said his negotiations with Lukashenko had been "open." The talks "addressed bilateral relations,
in particular, economic," he said.
In addition, the talks addressed "the development of the Union State, the interaction of Russia and Belarus on
the international scene, and cooperation on the post-Soviet space to create effective integration institutions," he
said.
Putin thanked Lukashenko for the meeting and expressed hopes that "we will continue working like this." [RU
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[Interfax] |
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