MINSK, March 2. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko thinks that the merger of Belarus and Russia to create integrated governance bodies is unviable, the BelTA agency reported.
"We are a sovereign and independent state. Today the world has changed so much that talks that Belarus should become part of Russia or that Russia should become part of Belarus, or that any other merger under single governance bodies should take place <...> The world has changed so much that it would be simply stupid to even work in this direction. And, secondly, it is absolutely unnecessary," he said during a meeting with Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko.
The Belarusian president explained that "Belarusians live in their own apartment." "Being a sovereign independent state, we can build a system of relations that will be more potent than the relations of separate territories in the Russian Federation itself," he added.
According to Lukashenko, Belarus and Russia have practically the same level of development in various directions, and if the two countries wish to they will be able to build such a system of interaction. "And we have done a whole lot to make this happen. We simply don’t talk about it. Our people have equal opportunities. No matter how difficult it might be, economic entities understand each other at negotiations and achieved a lot," he emphasized.
The Belarusian president repeatedly stated that the existing system of bodies of the Union State of Russia and Belarus had not exhausted its potential to date and opposed creation of new structures.
The supreme body of the Union State is the Supreme State Council which includes heads of state and government of Russia and Belarus as well as chairs of chambers of their parliaments. The executive body is the Council of Ministers which includes heads of government and a number of representatives of ministries of the two countries. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Union State is also operational.
