MOSCOW, 16 May (BelTA) – A bilateral meeting of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko and President of Russia Vladimir Putin is taking place in the Kremlin, BelTA has learned.
The heads of state left for the negotiations after a jubilee summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. “Lukashenko and Putin will hold a bilateral meeting now. The leaders arrived for the talks together!” the Telegram channel Pul Pervogo reports.
The meeting is taking place in the Russian president's office. But without an official photo session in accordance with their decision. “Topical issues are being discussed behind closed doors,” the Telegram channel added.
The Belarus president's press service previously informed that the advancement of manufacturing cooperation and joint work on import substitution will be high on the agenda of the meeting.
Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned some details of the agenda of the forthcoming meeting with his Russian counterpart when he met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Belarus Boris Gryzlov on 12 May. The Belarus president stressed that import substitution is one of the most important matters in cooperation with Russia now.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “Our relations are all about oil, gas, trade, shipments, market, and so on all the time. You know it as well as I do. As I often note it was a blessing in disguise and these issues are finally being addressed. But it is probably not the most important thing in our relations right now. I am thinking over these problems. During the meeting with the president of Russia we will once again seriously discuss them. Import substitution is a very important matter. There are many competences in Belarus and Russia. Well, due to certain reasons they did not develop the way they should have. Thank god these competences exist. Manufacturing cooperation and import substitution are the ways along which we should advance today.”
