MOSCOW, 14 March (BelTA) – There is a need for transition to the common markets of gas, oil and oil products, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he addressed the Federation Council during his official visit to Russia on 14 March, BelTA has learned.
According to him, the goal of the Union State model is deep integration, the desire to develop a common economic space with the preservation of political sovereignty of each country.
“I am glad that finally we have come to a common understanding that without building a working basis of the economy - united markets of primary energy resources - there can be no effective movement forward in further integration,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. According to him, it is necessary to move forward, including the unification of the markets of gas, oil and oil products.
He recalled that the agreement on the formation of the unified electricity market was signed in December 2024. “This is a good step. But we need to move further. Why hold on to oil and gas? You have them in abundance. Let us negotiate things,” the head of state suggested emphasizing the need to create favorable and equal economic conditions for the entities of both countries.
Belarus comes to the aid when Russia needs it, the president emphasized. The recent case, when there was a need for additional supplies of diesel fuel, gasoline and electricity, testifies to the fact.
According to the president, Belarus has two oil refineries which annual processing capacity is several tens of millions of tonnes of oil. The refineries have been upgraded and equipped with the latest technology. However, today their operation is no longer profitable due to unequal conditions in the supply of raw materials. Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that he had discussed the issue with the president of Russia. “They [oil refineries in Belarus] cannot work at a loss,” said the head of state. “We don't need 30% [of profit] for expanded production. Let it be 7-8% of profitability. These plants need to be preserved. We need them.”
According to him, the Russian president agreed that the parties needed to jointly look for ways to address the problem. This topic remains on the agenda of negotiations between the leaders of the two countries. “We will think about the best formula,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The same applies to the pricing of other energy resources, particularly gas, he said. “We are talking about common markets. We are not asking to give us something,” the president said. “We have to do it on market conditions, just as we did with electricity. We have this problem, and our governments cannot solve this problem even now, when we have to fight back together in certain areas. Therefore, we need to take further steps.”
In this regard, the head of state commented on the opinion that Belarus and Russia should go further in integration, and first of all, in the creation of a unified parliament, governing bodies and so on. The head of state is convinced that the problems he outlined above should be solved in the first place, as they are most obvious. Only then the two countries need to move forward on the path of deepening political integration.
“Let us address the issues that are on the surface. We will make these steps. Maybe we will gradually come to a single parliament once we are ready for it,” he said.
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, at the current stage it is also important to focus the attention in the union construction on such areas as the development of advanced models of unmanned vehicles and electric cars, microelectronic base of a wide range of applications, development of technical means in renewable and non-renewable energy sources, primarily nuclear power, development of precision farming, aircraft and shipbuilding.
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