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Lukashenka meets with Russian president

Alyaksandr Lukashenka on June 11 met with Dmitry Medvedew at the Russian president’s residence in Gorki near Moscow, BelaPAN reports.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Medvedev said that he intended to discuss Belarusian-Russian bilateral relations and, in particular, integration problems.

"Today we can touch base on the current situation, above all, on bilateral relations and integration problems," Russia's RIA Novosti quoted Mr. Medvedev as saying. "We'll see if we can make economic progress or if there're irreconcilable differences. Today we can discuss whether we can get around to implementing the agreements that were reached in Minsk and other places."

Mr. Medvedev said that he also planned to discuss with Mr. Lukashenka a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, earlier in the day, and the coming G8 and G20 summits. "Russia has always advocated the interests of our partners in the CIS and other alliances at these forums," Mr. Medvedev said.

Mr. Medvedev greeted the Belarusian leader on behalf of his counterparts in Central Asia, who took part in the SCO summit. "Knowing that I would have a meeting with you tonight, they said that they were missing the Belarusian leader and hadn`t seen him for a long time," he said.

Trade between Russia and Belarus increased considerably in the first four months of 2010, with Russia`s exports rising by about 20 percent and imports by nearly 52 percent, Mr. Medvedev noted. "This means that we`ve set certain necessary mechanisms into motion," he said.

Mr. Lukashenka expressed hope that the forthcoming conversation would be frank.

"In fact, we`ve had such frank conversations since the very first day," Mr. Lukashenka said. "They have been frank and we wouldn`t hide difficulties from each other. We have disagreements, but there are no unsolvable problems and there cannot be any."

Mr. Lukashenka said he was sure that he and the Russian president would be able to solve the problems during the meeting. "We want complete transparency in relations and want to strengthen them on an equal footing," Mr. Lukashenka said.

Instead of hoping to bring bilateral relations to a merely "partnership level," Belarus and Russia should remember that they form a union state, he said.

Messrs. Lukashenka and Medvedev continued their meeting behind closed doors. No details about the results of the meeting had been released as of 11 p.m. Minsk time.

According to the Belarusian leader’s press office, after the meeting, Mr. Lukashenka held talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The press office said no more than that “pressing issues concerning Belarusian-Russian cooperation” were discussed.