M/S Vladimir Putin enters through golden doors M/S Putin enters with Alexander Lukashenko delegates SOT of Vladimir Putin, Russian President (Russian): "Belarus has overtaken Ukraine to lead among all other CIS countries in terms of trade volume with Russia and ranks fifth in the list of global partners, following China, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Russia has maintained its leading position as the key economic, trade partner of and investor into Belarus, accounting for 49 percent of the turnover. The volume of Russian investment totals $5.8 billion. These are mainly direct investments into key industries, including gas transportation, processing, transport and communications." C/U Putin and Lukashenko sit down SOT of Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus (Russian): "Overall, with the global trade hit by the crisis, our Union State has been quite efficient in terms of developing our bilateral ties in trade and economy. And though our trade has decreased against last year, it has exceeded the 2011 figures by almost half a billion dollars. While it may sound like nothing extraordinary, the main achievement of our joint project is that now we see our bilateral cooperation as something entirely natural." W/S Delegates in room SCRIPT Russia: Belarus overtakes Ukraine as Russia's main CIS trade partner Presidents of Russia and Belarus Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko met prior to session of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Belarus and Russia (USBR) in the Kremlin on Wednesday. Those present at the session considered matters relating to Russia-Belarus international cooperation, and prospects for a further deepening of trade-and-economic and cultural-and-humanitarian contacts. On Tuesday, Lukashenko took part in a session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council (Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan) held in Moscow. "Belarus has overtaken Ukraine to lead among all other CIS countries in terms of trade volume with Russia and ranks fifth in the list of global partners, following China, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy," said President Putin. "Russia has maintained its leading position as the key economic, trade partner of and investor into Belarus, accounting for 49 percent of the turnover. The volume of Russian investment totals $5.8 billion. These are mainly direct investments into key industries, including gas transportation, processing, transport and communications." "Overall, with the global trade hit by the crisis, our Union State has been quite efficient in terms of developing our bilateral ties in trade and economy," said Belorussian President Lukashenko. "And though our trade has decreased against last year, it has exceeded the 2011 figures by almost half a billion dollars. While it may sound like nothing extraordinary, the main achievement of our joint project is that now we see our bilateral cooperation as something entirely natural." All political leadership of the two stated have been invited to the USBR State Council session. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey Naryshkin, Speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament, and Valentina Matviyenko, Speaker of the Federation Council upper house of parliament, will participate in the session on the Russian side. The leaders also discussed a USBR budget for 2014 and heard a report of the USBR Council of Ministers on budget performance in 2011 and 2012.

• published: 25 Dec 2013
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