MINSK, 5 February (BelTA) – Belarus’ Ambassador to Russia Dmitry Krutoi named the main areas of work for the Union State and the projects Belarus and Russia will be implementing in 2024 as he spoke in an interview to Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA has learned.
“The Supreme State Council has recently held a meeting in St. Petersburg. It became historic in terms of the level of decisions taken. The main thing is, of course, the adopted directions of our integration for 2024-2026. An important block includes efforts on the state debt, ensuring macroeconomic and financial balance. For example, Russia meets the Belarusian economy halfway, hears all our proposals. The Finance Ministry is working out a strategy for 2024 and for 2025-2026 regarding the debt and interests so that the state debt does not put pressure on the budget, and the resources that are freed up could be used to implement investment projects, support the development programs adopted in the country, as well as to maintain a safe level of our gold and foreign currency reserves,” Dmitry Krutoi said.
Traditionally, one of the biggest blocks is the real sector, united energy markets. “Belarus has the lowest price for natural gas, which is currently four times lower than, let's say, the price for European countries. If converted into Russian rubles, however, it is higher than the price on the Russian market. That is why the main documents say that after 2026 we will continue to reduce it from the level the presidents agreed on to the level of the gas price in Russian rubles to create equal conditions for both the parties. Within a year after the gas agreements are reached, we will have a unified energy market. It is clear that these two markets are very closely linked, and in fact the energy market program both in the wholesale and retail electricity sale has been almost agreed upon. Therefore, we can say that the gas and electricity blocks have been agreed upon for today,” the ambassador said.
“The Supreme State Council has recently held a meeting in St. Petersburg. It became historic in terms of the level of decisions taken. The main thing is, of course, the adopted directions of our integration for 2024-2026. An important block includes efforts on the state debt, ensuring macroeconomic and financial balance. For example, Russia meets the Belarusian economy halfway, hears all our proposals. The Finance Ministry is working out a strategy for 2024 and for 2025-2026 regarding the debt and interests so that the state debt does not put pressure on the budget, and the resources that are freed up could be used to implement investment projects, support the development programs adopted in the country, as well as to maintain a safe level of our gold and foreign currency reserves,” Dmitry Krutoi said.
Traditionally, one of the biggest blocks is the real sector, united energy markets. “Belarus has the lowest price for natural gas, which is currently four times lower than, let's say, the price for European countries. If converted into Russian rubles, however, it is higher than the price on the Russian market. That is why the main documents say that after 2026 we will continue to reduce it from the level the presidents agreed on to the level of the gas price in Russian rubles to create equal conditions for both the parties. Within a year after the gas agreements are reached, we will have a unified energy market. It is clear that these two markets are very closely linked, and in fact the energy market program both in the wholesale and retail electricity sale has been almost agreed upon. Therefore, we can say that the gas and electricity blocks have been agreed upon for today,” the ambassador said.
