ST PETERSBURG, 20 December (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia have three groups of issues left to address, BelTA learned from Russian Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin after the meeting of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko and President of Russia Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on 20 December.
The official said: “After today's talks there are three groups of issues left standing in the way of final agreements. Those are issues concerning oil, natural gas, and taxation. These three groups of issues need to be addressed in order to finalize all the roadmaps.”
In his words, during the meeting the heads of state discussed what had been achieved since their previous meeting in Sochi. “We've worked very hard and very effectively with my counterpart [First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus] Dmitry Krutoi on these matters. We stayed within the framework of the agreements reached in Sochi. The presidents gave us a number of instructions. We've made another step forward from the point of view of reconciliation. We have fully reconciled matters concerning agriculture, communications, customs, and alcohol market regulations,” the economic development minister said.
BelTA reported earlier that in early September the prime ministers of Belarus and Russia agreed a draft action program to implement the Union State Foundation Treaty and a list of roadmaps. The sides agreed to work out 31 roadmaps to implement the action program.