Medvedev, Lukashenko to discuss Customs Union, bilateral issues.

MOSCOW, June 11 (Itar-Tass) - Problems of the Customs Union (CU) of
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will be one of the main subjects of talks
that will be held in Moscow on Friday by Russian and Belarusian Presidents
- Dmitry Medvedev and Alexander Lukashenko.
"It is planned to give special attention to the Customs Union problems
regarding a meeting of the Interstate Council of the Eurasian Economic
Community (EurAsEC) and the CU troika at the level of the heads of state
that are scheduled for July 5 in Astana, as well as accords reached by the
heads of governments of the CU member countries on May 21 and by the
Russian and Kazakhstani prime ministers in St. Petersburg on May 28," an
official of the Kremlin administration said commenting on the forthcoming
working visit of the Belarusian president to Russia.
The heads of state confirmed this in a telephone conversation they had
on Thursday. "Moscow has always considered it expedient to hold a regular,
open, direct and honest dialogue on issues of Russian-Belarusian
cooperation in all spheres without exception," the Kremlin administration
official stressed.
"The sides are also expected to raise the issues of interaction in the
fuel and energy sphere, including the supplies of oil and gas that are
being carried out in strict compliance with the earlier reached agreements
on the gradual transition to the principles of market price formation in
mutual trade," the Kremlin source noted. "The Russian side is for the
unconditional observance of the obligations assumed in this sphere,
including on the payment for Russian gas supplies," he stressed recalling
t hat the Belarusian side as of May 1, 2010 accrued a debt worth 192.3
million US dollars to Russia's natural gas monopoly Gazprom.
"It is also planned to discuss other important issues of bilateral
interaction, including the progress of the fulfilment of existing
agreements on the further development of Russian-Belarusian integration
cooperation," the RF presidential administration noted. "During the talks
the parties will consider possibilities for the further intensification of
the trade-economic relations and building up of the mutual trade turnover
volumes that in January-April 2010 increased by 21.2 percent, as compared
with the similar period last year," the Kremlin representative said. He
also noted that Russia's supplies to Belarus grew by 9.4 percent, and
Belarusian to Russia - by 51.3 percent; e.g. - the Belarusian export
growth to countries outside the CIS region reached just 11.8 percent.
"The heads of state are also likely to discuss a number of regional
issues in the context of membership in the common integration unions - the
CIS, Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and EurAsEC," the RF
presidential administration noted.
During his stay in Moscow Lukashenko is also planned to meet with
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and visit the All-Russian Research
Institute of Electromechanics with the A.G. Iosifyan Plant where the work
on the creation of a Belarusian satellite for the Earth's remote sensing
is coming to an end. It is planned to launch the satellite simultaneously
with the Russian satellites Canopus-V by the Soyuz-FG rocket carrier. The
two satellites will form the base of the Russian-Belarusian space group
for the Earth's remote sensing.
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