Lukashenka: EEU moving to political and military integration

The Collective Security treaty Organisation (CSTO) will become a military body of the Eurasian Union.

Lukashenka made this statement on June 5 at a meeting with chairman of the Council of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia Valentina Matviyenko and heads of the Russian regions, who took part in the first Forum of Belarusian and Russian regions, the dictator's press service reports.

“If we have economy, if it unites and consolidates people, if it is the foundation, we will definitely come to the need of protecting the economy and economic interests. I think will soon see the CSTO as a part of the union. It will be our military body,” he said.

Lukashenka turned attention to the opinions that the further construction of the “union state” of Belarus and Russia was no longer needed. He thinks the question on the further existence of the union can be raised only when the EEU has reached the current level of the integration of the “union state”. “We are not ready for it yet,” he said.

“We are often criticised, in particular by Russia. They say Lukashenka is not satisfied, he just plays a bargaining game. I am not bargaining! Am I satisfied or not satisfied? Of course, I am not, because we initially agreed on the union without exemptions and restrictions. It was supposed to be a single state at least in economy. But when we took a closer look at the problems, some of them appeared to be irresolvable. Well, let's put it straight, they are irresolvable for the Russian Federation,” Lukashenka said.

He recalled that many arrangements of the trilateral level were replaced by bilateral ones. “We have moved away even from the Customs Union in some aspects. We, the three presidents, admitted it,” the Belarusian ruler noted.

“We had to postpone some issues until 2025. I criticised this position. That's the reason for my displeasure. We agreed on the union without exemptions and restrictions, but we see them, and they are huge. It doesn't look so attractive now, but we decided firmly that until 2025 (which does not mean it will happen in 2025, it should happen as soon as possible) we will solve the problems,” Lukashenka said.