Rapota: Union State will continue as pilot integration project

The Union State will continue playing the role of a pilot integration project in the future, State Secretary of the Union State Grigory Rapota said in an interview with media. He stressed that the analysis of the state of affairs in CIS, EurAsEC, CSTO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization shows that the Union State is more advanced across a number of positions. "It is sufficient to recall that there are no borders between Belarus and Russia. There is no customs or border control either," he said. In the Customs Union there are no customs borders on the border of Russia and Kazakhstan as well, but border control remains in place. I think this is the most important aspect, though there are many other examples, including the establishment of the regional forces. This is something that falls within the purview of the CSTO but in this matter, the Union State and the CSTO do not interfere with each other. The Belarusian-Russian regional forces are advanced in terms of interaction. For other CSTO members it can even serves as a model,” Grigory Rapota said. The way the socio-economic issues are addressed in the State Union can serve as a model for the Customs Union too, said Grigory Rapota. The same is true about the Union State’s experience in implementing programs. The Customs Union is beginning to draw on this experience.