Putin: Russia seeks to strengthen political integration with Belarus

Russia seeks to strengthen political and economic integration with Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on 19 June. On Tuesday, Minsk hosted the meeting of the Supreme Council of the Belarus-Russia union state. The Russian president also said that it was realistic to grow the trade turnover between the countries up to the level of $50 billion against $32.4 billion in 2017. Putin noted a huge significance of Belarusian expports of Russian natural gas to the European Union, reports ria.ru.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka said that Belarus and Russia agreed to solve the issue of border crossing between the two nations. He also raised another important issue — the need to remove trade barries and create an equal competitive environment. In his view, this will determine the further development of trade relations between Belarus and Russia.