Russia proposes to create joint 'ministry or customs committee' - Lukashenka

Russia has offered Belarus to create joint ministries, Aliaksandr Lukashenka said at a meeting with the leadership of the Council of Ministers on January 18, when it discussed "adjusting the customs legislation". It turned out that "changes are needed to harmonize the legislation of Belarus and Russia". Lukashenka said that "in the process of unification one should not violate the interests of the state". And added that there were proposals "almost to create a single ministry or customs committee" (when the decision was made to unify the legislation of the two countries, including in the customs sphere).

"We totally rejected it and agreed, among other things, at the Supreme State Council [of the Union State] that we will create a single group that will make recommendations, see how customs control is carried out, and so on, without depriving the state of these powers and functions," BELTA quoted Lukashenka as saying. "We, Russia and Belarus, are sovereign, independent states. And we should remember this when making certain decisions".

Lukashenka went on to say, perhaps ironically, that "as you can see, we manage to build such allied relations [with Russia] that no one on the planet has ever known and does not know". He also emphasized that "the system is common, similar, but there should be two sovereign, independent states".

At the meeting Lukashenka mentioned publications claiming that Belarus is losing its sovereignty (he was shown them in the media review). He does not agree with this. He claims that "on this sovereign territory, which belongs to our people, only we make decisions and act only in conditions favorable to us".