(AGENPARL) – MOSCA mar 21 giugno 2022

The meeting took place on the sidelines of a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council.

Excerpts from the transcript:

Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Roman Golovchenko

Mikhail Mishustin: Mr
Golovchenko, colleagues, I am glad to see you again in Minsk. I always visit Belarus with special
friendly feelings. I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for
your hospitality and the traditionally warm welcome of our entire delegation.
It is symbolic that our meeting is taking place ahead of the 30th anniversary
of diplomatic relations, to be marked on 25 June. We are also meeting ahead of
another very important date for our fraternal peoples – the 81st anniversary of
the start of the Great Patriotic War.

I
would like to emphasise that we sincerely value our neighbourly and allied
relations with Belarus
and consider our cooperation very important, and I hope that we will take it to
an even higher level. We will build up the integration agenda of the Union State.
A reliable basis for this is created by the Guidelines for Implementing the
Provisions of the Treaty Establishing the Union State and the 28 union
programmes, approved by the Supreme State Council in November last year with
the participation of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and President
of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, which we are implementing with you, Mr
Golovchenko.

The
governments of Russia and Belarus
established systematic work on these allied programmes. Over a third of the 983
events have already been completed. Priority goes to creating a common economic
space and deepening cooperation in industry, energy, agriculture, the digital
economy, transport and many other sectors.

We greatly appreciate the constructive position of our Belarusian
friends on the developments around Ukraine. Together we are resisting
the unprecedented sanctions pressure from unfriendly states, comparable to an
all-out economic war. Its goal is to cut Russia and Belarus off from the
international financial system, slow down our economic development, undermine
the technological sovereignty of our countries, and ultimately make life worse for
our citizens. I am convinced that we will withstand this pressure, and, as a
result, we will become stronger and overcome the consequences of Western
sanctions, including through deepening integration in the Union State,
launching joint projects, developing new production and logistics chains, and
import substitution. It is important that trade and economic cooperation
between Russia and Belarus
develops successfully. Last year, mutual trade increased by more than 34
percent and amounted to $38.5 billion. The Russian
Federation ranks first in terms of accumulated
investments in Belarus,
which is already more than $4 billion. In the first quarter of this year, capital
investment increased by 13 percent. In total, more than 2,500 companies with
Russian participation operate in Belarus.

Our direct region-to-region interaction
with Belarus
also plays a crucial role in developing our trade and economic relations. I
believe that the upcoming Forum of [Russian and Belarusian] Regions with
President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and President of Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko will give a new, deeper impetus to region-to-region
cooperation.

Our talks are being held ahead of
the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting. Russia
and Belarus
are actively promoting deeper integration in the Eurasian Economic Union. We make
collective decisions aimed at enhancing the economic resilience of the EAEU
member countries under sanctions, provide commodity markets with in-demand and
competitive products, and protect them from unfavourable external conditions. Today
we saw an example of such interaction – the Amkodor enterprise. I think that
its work with 120 suppliers, cooperation with over 50 Russian businesses, and
generation of demand in our union – all that showcases Amkodor’s amazing
example. The new equipment samples – competitive and effective – showed today
the efficiency of our joint programmes, among other things.

Mr Golovchenko, I am ready to
discuss with you the current issues on the bilateral agenda.

Roman Golovchenko: Thank
you, Mr Mishustin. I am happy to welcome you and your colleagues in Belarus.

We have a packed bilateral agenda
this year due to the need to resolve urgent issues of supporting our economies
under the conditions, as you put it, of unprecedented sanctions pressure. Well,
pressure is probably too mild a word, rather poetic. In reality, it is a true economic war against Belarus and Russia.

Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Roman Golovchenko

From March through
June, that is, in less than four months, the national governments of our countries
managed to do a great deal to minimise the pressure, to coordinate joint
actions on manufacturing import-substitution products, adjusting the economies
to the changed external conditions, saturating the consumer market, and laying
out new logistics for the delivery of goods and in general comprehensive
measures to support all industries. And those 28 union
programmes are certainly a great pillar. I think there will be more of them
soon, we are working on that. They actually confirm that the decisions were
taken at the perfect time.  

We still have a number of mechanisms
in place to coordinate these efforts at the ministry and agency level as well
as a higher level. They are regular contacts between deputy prime ministers –
Alexei Overchuk from one side and Nikolai Snopkov from the other – and a
high-level group of the Council of Ministers of the Union State. Their
work focuses on promptly resolving emerging problems in bilateral trade, the
way we work in tandem within the framework of the five countries.

Whereas in the past years our meetings
focused on finding the best solutions in view of maximum consideration of each other’s
interests, now coordination and mutual support in overcoming crisis
events are coming to the fore.

I would like to express gratitude
to you, Mr Mishustin, and members of the Government of the Russian Federation, heads and deputy
heads of the federal executive bodies for a constructive, in-depth and careful approach to all the issues, and not only problems,
lest there is an impression that
all we have been doing was resolving some problematic issues. We also put
forward initiatives and, on the whole, carry them out successfully.

At present, the state bodies of Belarus and Russia have drafted a number of
proposals that are up for decision at the heads of government level. In some cooperation
areas, the work is probably progressing slower
than we want and slower than the time demands. Therefore, I think we will also
discuss these issues and will take respective decisions. I think that
the emerging situation makes it necessary to act quickly, decisively and in a
military style. Actually, we are working precisely under such conditions, and
we must make decisions under such conditions. This is why I would like to take this opportunity and discuss exactly these type
of questions today, the more so that we have all key officials present. 

Fonte/Source: http://government.ru/en/news/45773/