Lukashenko announced EAEU strategic goals
Further deepening of intra-union integration and the need for the international positioning of the EAEU are paramount today – as stated by the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in an expanded format
Touching upon the strategic tasks for the EAEU, the Belarusian Head of State particularly underlined, “Firstly, it’s necessary to provide a real exit to the implementation of joint projects to create the most modern production facilities in the shortest possible time. Actually, the production facilities of the future. This is an essential element of our economic sovereignty. Today we are taking another step in this direction: we are considering the issue of empowering the EAEU bodies with the authority to financially assist industrial co-operation at the expense of the EAEU budget.”
The President of Belarus is convinced that the possibility of subsidising interest rates on loans will bring the financing of particular industrial projects by the Eurasian Development Bank to a qualitatively new level.
The second important point that the Belarusian leader focuses on is, “It is necessary at all costs to improve the circulatory system of our union. I’m talking about finance. It is already clear to everyone: the era of US Dollar dominance is coming to an end. The future belongs to trading blocks, settlements in which will be made in national currencies. Belarus and Russia have already moved away from the US Dollar in basic payments. It is important that other partners actively joined this process.”
The third significant issue concerns the removal of obstacles in the EAEU internal market. Aleksandr Lukashenko shared his position, “I think that in principle we should not have any barriers in mutual trade. This is the essence of the establishment of our EAEU. This will solve the two main tasks of providing national markets with critical imports and co-ordinating actions in the export of strategically important goods, primarily food.”
At the same time, the Head of State was forced to note, “Meanwhile, today the reality is that we continue to struggle with the consequences of decisions taken unilaterally at the national level: either we cannot export timber or we do not let international road carriers through. At the same time, the search for mutually acceptable solutions to problematic issues drags on for many months. Sometimes there are many meetings but just a few decisions. I think that the Commission should intensify work in this direction as much as possible.”
