The Russia and Belarus Union State project may disappear if the project of the Eurasian Economic Union with common economic space develops actively, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday.
“The project of the Union State could perhaps vanish without any development if the current project of the Common Economic Space develops quickly. The CES project may overtake the moves to further integrate Russia and Belarus and will call into question the need for the Union State,” Lukashenko said at a news conference after talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The Belarusian president also said that the new union could stop the so-called trade wars between the states.
“The main thing is that some of our conflicts and misunderstandings, the milk, sugar and other (trade) wars will no longer exist. We have declared freedom of trade, services and capitals flows. Is this not for the people? Of course it’s for the people,” he said.
During the talks, Medvedev, Lukashenko and Nazarbayev signed an agreement to establish the Eurasian Economic Commission, a supranational body to manage the countries’ integration into the new union.