MINSK, 24 September (BelTA) - The Presidents of Belarus and Russia, Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin, further discussed the core issue of the Sochi talks and found a solution to it. The telephone conversation between the two leaders took place after the government meeting in Minsk held on 22 September to discuss the results of the Belarusian-Russian talks on 21 September, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian president.
"On Russia's initiative, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation. The heads of state clarified a number of issues that had been discussed in Sochi. The presidents talked about the implementation of agreements on the distribution of the customs duties on crude oil and about Belarus' payments for natural gas supplied by Gazprom," the press service said.
As it was reported, during the government meeting in Minsk Alexander Lukashenko said that the main issue that was discussed at the Sochi talks, was the return of customs duties on crude oil to the Belarusian budget and also the refining of dark oil products in Belarus. “This is a difficult, complicated issue. We have two options. We agreed with the Russian president that we would discuss these two options in Minsk and agree on the final solution in Dushanbe [on the margins of the forthcoming CIS summit]. But the issue has been actually solved. We just need to choose one or the other option,” the Belarusian president said addressing the government meeting in Minsk.
