Mikhail Mishustin and Roman Golovchenko made statements to the media following the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State
Excerpts from the transcript:
Roman Golovchenko: Members of the media,
Today we have held a regular meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State. Our dialogue with Russian colleagues was traditionally constructive and fruitful, it took place in an atmosphere of trust and in the spirit of allied and fraternal relations between our states and peoples.
It is symbolic that this meeting of the Union Council of Ministers and the forthcoming session of the Supreme State Council are being held on the eve of a significant date for us – the 25th anniversary of the Union State.
As you might remember, the Treaty on the Creation of a Union State was signed on 8 December 1999, and a joint action programme for its implementation was adopted.
Over the past quarter of a century, the integration of our countries has been steadily deepening, yielding results in the form of equal rights for citizens in many spheres, coordination of foreign and defence policies, joint economic, scientific, technical and humanitarian projects and programmes while fully preserving the sovereignty of Belarus and Russia.
And today, one can say for sure that we have made the right choice.
Union construction helps Belarus and Russia resist current challenges and threats, creates necessary conditions for further successful development of our countries, improvement of well-being and living standards of their peoples.
No doubt it is also critically important that our union has become a locomotive of integration trend in the post-Soviet space, in the Eurasian space.
During our today’s meeting we discussed a wide range of issues in a substantive and result-oriented manner, from trade and economic cooperation and designing a common information space strategy to the registration of the Union State's commodity status and the cancelling of roaming.
In total, we have considered 21 topics. We discussed all the issues in the context of providing for equal rights to the citizens of Belarus and Russia as we were instructed by Chairman of the Supreme Union State Council, President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.
In particular, we will draft a decision of the Supreme Union State Council reducing inter-operator tariffs and providing Belarusian and Russian subscribers communication services at tariffs comparable to those used in the so-called home network from 1 March 2025 with at least 300 minutes of free incoming voice calls and at least 5 GB of data transfer per month. This will make it possible for people in the Union State to use even more voice services on easy terms and, for the first time ever, to transfer a considerable amount of data.
I want to stress that this is not a simple decision either in terms of technology or economy. However, that was the presidents’ instruction and it has been performed.
We have endorsed a draft decree of the Supreme State Council on common competition rules and consumer rights protection. This meaningful document accumulates the best approaches of the Russian and Belarusian legislation towards the protection of consumer rights. Its adoption will be conducive for strengthening and developing the common economic space of the Union State and make it possible for our citizens to have a high protection level in the future.
We continue to attentively monitor the observance of equal rights of citizens in the Union State so that our people can fully and equally enjoy the benefits that the Union State provides in matters of labour, medical care, social guarantees and other areas.
We have approved the draft resolution of the Supreme State Council endorsing the plan for organising and holding events to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. It includes the most significant events to be held in Belarus and Russia during this sacred holiday for the peoples of our countries. And of course, the main goal is to commemorate the contribution of the Soviet people to the Great Victory.
In addition, we have established today a media company of the Union State, approved its charter and its supervisory board membership. It will act as a single editorial board and content customer for content promoting Union construction, its achievements, and covering major events including on third-party television channels and information platforms.
We have also considered the issue of granting the status of the Union State Product to the products of Belarusian and Russian industrial enterprises. Experts on both sides are to lay down criteria whereby such products may be referred to as Union State Products, identify the areas where they should be applied, establish the procedure for adopting and assigning the status and resolve some matters of the organisational and protocol nature.
This is required to finally solve the issue of granting the national identification to all goods produced in the Union State.
I am sure that the implementation of today’s decisions will help execute the Treaty on the Creation of a Union State, promote the Belarusian and Russian economies and raise our citizens’ standard of life.
I thank once again all the participants and particularly Mikhail Mishustin.
More to be posted soon…
