On February 23, the first events of the Presidents of Belarus and Russia in 2021 took place. During the meeting, which lasted for more than 6 hours, the heads of state returned to the issue of coordination of road maps to deepen integration in the Union State. The emphasis was focused on the development of economic, tax and defense cooperation, as well as the production of the Russian Vaccine "Sputnik V" in Belarus. More on how Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin agreed on what plan of action for 2021, read the article by the Director of the Public Association Center for External Policy and Security, the Researcher of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Denis Bonkin.
Context
The first meeting of Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin after the presidential election in Belarus in September last year took place at the time of the most massive yields of protesters to the streets of Minsk. Now the protests have practically disappeared from the streets of the Belarusian capital. On the other hand, the Belarusian side focused on the fact that Russia faced protests on its own territory.The All-Belarusian People's Assembly held in Minsk summed up under the previous 5-year period of the country's development and outlined the prospects for the next five-year plan. A number of issues directly affecting the interests of Russia and the Union State were also announced. All this in a certain sense defined the tone to bilateral negotiations of the presidents. That is why the personal and closed nature of the meeting could be chosen, on which only presidents were attended and without ties, which involves a frank exchange of views, and not just voicing the pre-developed positions.
Main accents
In the framework of the voiced information on the results of the meeting, which was quite scanty, the look clings for two principal for both countries of the moment.
The first is that work on the agenda deepening integration within the framework of the Allied State, despite all the problems and crises, was not stopped. At the moment there is a detailed study and coordination of 6 or 7 road maps from 33.
Experts who track this topic may notice that the situation has changed significantly since the fall of 2019, when the whole question rested in the so-called 33rd "Energy Road Map". That is, a number of cards were returned to refinement, and there is hope to see their final version already this year.
In addition, the idea of the Russian president is important about the need to increase the interaction at the regions level, because it is this level that it helps to maintain not only dense economic ties, but serves as the basis of cultural, humanitarian, scientific and other relations between people who constitute the foundation of close friendly relations between Our countries.
Also within the framework of the meeting discussed the struggle against the pandemic and the readiness of the Russian side to establish the production of vaccine from coronavirus in Belarus. At the same time, Lukashenko noted that Belarusian scientists also develop their own vaccine, which should be ready for autumn.
At the same time, the idea of creating a second nitrogen fertilizer plant was performed from the Belarusian side in Grodno, which could compensate for the inevitable fall in the consumption of natural gas consumption by the Republic after the commissioning of Bealets. An even concrete cost of creating a similar object was sounded - $ 1.1-1.2 billion.
As a positive background of the negotiations, it is impossible not to mention the conclusion of an agreement on the reorientation of the exports of Belarusian oil products from the ports of Lithuania and Latvia to the Russian marine transit points. Subject to an increase in the logistics shoulder and in the case of the provision of comfortable tariffs for Belarusian suppliers, the Russian railway and Russian ports can earn in this transit. At the same time, this can serve as a fairly sensitive countermeasure for conducting unfriendly policies in relation to the official Minsk Vilnius and Riga.
In addition, the renewal of the railway, and in the future and the automotive report, is what worried ordinary citizens of both countries and can become a positive signal for societies of Belarus and Russia.
At the same time, the presidents were expected discussed the possibilities of economic cooperation, especially against the background of a rather strongly requested bilateral turnover. A drop of 15%, of course, is not fatal, but inflicts a tangible blow to enterprises involved in bilateral trade.
What will happen next
What was still discussed by the leaders of the two countries and which decisions they came to, will be known a little later, when the implementation of the intended projects will be treated with specialized agencies. But the fact that the next day after the negotiations took place, the leaders of the two countries took place a telephone conversation on the topics of the functioning of the tax system, issues of cooperation in the military-industrial complex, the strengthening of joint defense systems, the work of the media, indicates that the agenda of Russia and Belarus is widely and for One meeting all questions not to solve. Therefore, in order for two close peoples to become even closer, there is a lot of work to equalize the living conditions of people and business entities in the Union State.
The heads of state demonstrated readiness for such work and the desire to meet each other in these not light times, which are still complicated and complex external conditions for the development of integration.
Denis Bonkin, Researcher of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Director of Public Association "Center for External Policy and Security"