Lukashenko says Belarus may leave EEU if others default on agreements

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 mass media on Thursday He warned that further efforts to build the Eurasian Economic Union would not be easy. 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 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 after 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