Belarusian Presidential Candidate Dmitriev Calls For New Cooperation Deal With Russia

MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th August, 2020) Belarusian presidential candidate Andrey Dmitriev expressed the belief, in an interview with Sputnik, that Belarus and Russia should sign a new cooperation agreement replacing the "outdated" Union State Treaty and better reflecting the current realia.

"We must turn this page over, albeit carefully. We must show that we are moving forward, we must sign a new agreement," Dmitriev, who co-chairs the Tell the Truth public association, said.

The presidential candidate expressed the belief that the Union State Treaty, signed back in the late 1990s, was "outdated" and contained "too many provisions that ... no one implements."

"Let us just build close friendly relations without false hopes, for example on uniform energy prices," Dmitriev suggested.

The politician noted that the new deal should cover economic, social and humanitarian cooperation and serve the interests of both countries. Dmitriev also praised Russia as a key partner of his country.

"We should still travel to our countries without any problems, we should have the possibility to work and study in both countries, to receive retirement benefits and pay taxes. We should have borders without checkpoints, but both sides should pursue a more responsible approach, as absolute absence of control leads to drug trafficking, speculations and illegal migration," Dmitriev said.

"I think we should tell our Russian friends frankly that we do not want to have common Currency and that we do not want deep integration. We should turn this page over and leave behind relations built on the hopes we had back in the 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed and we thought it was temporary and a new Soviet Union would soon emerge. No, there will be no Soviet Union, we are two independent countries that should have friendly relations," Dmitriev concluded.