Belarusian President Says Not Against Idea For Single 'Neutral' Currency With Russia

Belarusian President Says Not Against Idea for Single 'Neutral' Currency With Russia

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday he does not mind a single currency in the Union State of Russia and Belarus but wants it to be a "neutral" currency, i.e. neither the Russian nor the Belarusian ruble

MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd April, 2020) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday he does not mind a single Currency in the Union State of Russia and Belarus but wants it to be a "neutral" currency, i.e. neither the Russian nor the Belarusian ruble.

"We have a treaty on the Union State. We do not give up on a single clause in the treaty. Let us take the most serious one that is being discussed today � the single currency. We are not against the single currency. It, however, needs to be a neutral currency, neither the Belarusian ruble, nor the Russian one," Lukashenko said during an interview with Mir interstate broadcaster, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency.

He also admitted that his main concern is not even about the currency per se, but where the emission center will be located.

"The question is not in what the ruble will be. The question is where the emission center will be located, and not even where but who will manage the emission center. Will it be done on an equal footing or, since Russia is a big country, it will manage its own ruble and we will eliminate ours and join them?" Lukashenko said as quoted by the news outlet.

On December 8, 1999, Moscow and Minsk signed the Treaty on the Creation of a Union State of Russia and Belarus, stipulating a gradual introduction of a single currency with a simultaneous creation of a single emission center.