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Russia's Post Soviet Allies Discuss Economy, Security at Minsk Summit
MosNews, Russia
June 24 2006
MosNews
Leaders of several ex-Soviet nations met Friday to discuss plans to
strengthen their economic alliance and bolster defense and security
cooperation, The Associated Press reported.
Leaders of Russia, Belarus and four Central Asian nations -
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - sat down for a
summit of their Eurasian Economic Community in the Belarusian capital,
focusing on plans to form a customs union. Opening the talks, Belarus'
authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, also said they would
discuss ways to coordinate strategies for joining the World Trade
Organization. Lukashenko said later that they had failed to reach
common ground on coordinating WTO accession talks.
Talks on forming a customs union were also moving slowly, he said,
and the pact's members so far had agreed on just over half of all
customs tariffs. "The process isn't advancing as quickly as we would
like it to happen," Lukashenko said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who took over from Lukashenko
on Friday as the chairman of the group, tried to sound optimistic,
saying that "we are paying a close attention to forming the customs
union and have an intention to form it quickly."
Numerous previous attempts by the ex-Soviet nations to form a customs
union and coordinate their economic policies have failed because of
sharp differences in size and level of development of their economies,
as well as fears of Russian domination.
The same six leaders and Armenia's president held a summit of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization on Friday.
Lukashenko - dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by the United States
and other Western nations for his relentless crackdown on dissent -
has repeatedly accused the West of harboring aggressive intentions
and sought to build closer economic and military ties with Russia
and other ex-Soviet nations.
Belarus this week is hosting the largest ever joint military
maneuvers with Russia, envisaging a joint response to an unnamed,
outside military threat. Belarusian officials have said that Putin
and other leaders would watch the exercise over the weekend, but the
Kremlin said Friday that Putin would not attend it.
Russia backed Lukashenko's re-election to a third term in March's
election, which was criticized as fraudulent by the opposition and
Western governments. However, ties between Moscow and Minsk soured
recently over the Russian plan to end cheap natural gas supplies
that kept Belarus' Soviet-style economy afloat and start charging
market prices.
Observers said the move by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom natural
gas giant was part of efforts to raise pressure on Belarus to force
it into giving up control over its gas pipeline, which carries Russian
gas exports to the West.
MosNews, Russia
June 24 2006
MosNews
Leaders of several ex-Soviet nations met Friday to discuss plans to
strengthen their economic alliance and bolster defense and security
cooperation, The Associated Press reported.
Leaders of Russia, Belarus and four Central Asian nations -
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - sat down for a
summit of their Eurasian Economic Community in the Belarusian capital,
focusing on plans to form a customs union. Opening the talks, Belarus'
authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, also said they would
discuss ways to coordinate strategies for joining the World Trade
Organization. Lukashenko said later that they had failed to reach
common ground on coordinating WTO accession talks.
Talks on forming a customs union were also moving slowly, he said,
and the pact's members so far had agreed on just over half of all
customs tariffs. "The process isn't advancing as quickly as we would
like it to happen," Lukashenko said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who took over from Lukashenko
on Friday as the chairman of the group, tried to sound optimistic,
saying that "we are paying a close attention to forming the customs
union and have an intention to form it quickly."
Numerous previous attempts by the ex-Soviet nations to form a customs
union and coordinate their economic policies have failed because of
sharp differences in size and level of development of their economies,
as well as fears of Russian domination.
The same six leaders and Armenia's president held a summit of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization on Friday.
Lukashenko - dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by the United States
and other Western nations for his relentless crackdown on dissent -
has repeatedly accused the West of harboring aggressive intentions
and sought to build closer economic and military ties with Russia
and other ex-Soviet nations.
Belarus this week is hosting the largest ever joint military
maneuvers with Russia, envisaging a joint response to an unnamed,
outside military threat. Belarusian officials have said that Putin
and other leaders would watch the exercise over the weekend, but the
Kremlin said Friday that Putin would not attend it.
Russia backed Lukashenko's re-election to a third term in March's
election, which was criticized as fraudulent by the opposition and
Western governments. However, ties between Moscow and Minsk soured
recently over the Russian plan to end cheap natural gas supplies
that kept Belarus' Soviet-style economy afloat and start charging
market prices.
Observers said the move by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom natural
gas giant was part of efforts to raise pressure on Belarus to force
it into giving up control over its gas pipeline, which carries Russian
gas exports to the West.