ID :
355677
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 13:40
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Building EEU to be no easy task - Lukashenko

MINSK, January 29. /TASS/. Belarus will reserve the right to leave the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), if the agreements achieved within the union’s framework are not observed, President Aleksandr Lukashenko told a news conference for domestic and foreign media on Thursday. He recalled that Belarus had put its signature to the EEU treaty with certain reservations. "If the agreements are observed, we shall painstakingly comply with everything that concerns the EEU. If they are not observed, we shall reserve the right to quit the EEU," Lukashenko said. In his opinion building the EEU would be a no easy task. "They will require not just the politicians’ interest, but money," Lukashenko explained. "There have been certain developments that should have never occurred after the signing of the documents (regarding the EEU - TASS). Such as milk and meat wars, and others," Lukashenko went on to say. He complained that most often the rifts between Russia and Belarus were brought into the limelight, while Russia had certain controversies with Kazakhstan, too. Lukashenko stated that the whole world was experiencing integration and "we should stay united, too." "For our country with a population of ten million having a 170-million market for our products is a real blessing," he said, adding that close integration with Russia let Belarus get Russian gas for 134 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, while Ukraine was paying nearly 400 dollars. Belarus will be promoting deeper integration within the EEU by all possible means and working for the creation of an equitable union without exemptions or omissions, he promised. "We are obliged to use the opportunities opening up within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union," he said, adding that Belarus took the office of the EEU chairman on January 1, 2015. Belarus has all along been an active supporter of integration processes in the post-Soviet space. In cooperation with Russia and Kazakhstan it created a customs union, which emerged on January 1, 2010. Two years later the three countries established still closer interaction within a common economic space. On January 1, 2015 there emerged the Eurasian Economic Union. The treaty to establish it was signed by Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus on May 29, 2014. Armenia joined in shortly afterwards. Kyrgyzstan has declared its intention to participate. Read more

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