Supreme State Council of Belarus-Russia Union State to convene in 2021

A meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Belarus-Russia Union State is expected to take place in 2021, State Secretary of the Union State Dmitry Mezentsev said following a meeting of the High-Level Group of the Council of Ministers of the Union State on 7 April, BelTA has learned.

“Meetings of the High-Level Group are always notable for a substantive agenda and a heated debate by representatives of ministries and government agencies. The co-chairs of the High-Level Group - Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexei Overchuk and Ambassador of Belarus to Russia Vladimir Semashko - always strive to reach optimal and feasible solutions in current economic conditions. A very complex and complicated agenda has been discussed in detail today. First of all, we proposed to deal with the issues that, in our opinion, should be raised at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State. We expect that the presidents of our countries, Aleksandr Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin, will hold a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State this year, and today we discussed the matters that will be later raised by the national leaders,” Dmitry Mezentsev said.

According to him, the participants of the High-Level Group meeting reaffirmed their plans to keep working on the concept of a coordinated migration policy of Belarus and Russia. They also discussed the need to converge approaches to ensuring a uniform tax treatment of software used in Russia.

“It was difficult to deal with three issues concerning the customs controls on our non-existent administrative border, i.e. the illegal movement of goods that should not enter retain networks, should be declared and move along the territory of the Union State under strict control. Today we see a greater mutual understanding between the representatives of the customs authorities of Belarus and Russia,” Dmitry Mezentsev stated.

He added that the meeting discussed the importance of interaction between business entities under the auspices of the ministries and government agencies of Belarus and Russia. “Businesses will always have disputes. Nevertheless, we see a determination to reach mutual understanding; the nature of a dialogue is changing. This means greater understanding and relevance of those steps that make the Union State stronger,” Dmitry Mezentsev added.