What will Lukashenko and Putin discuss in the Kremlin? We've gathered all the insights
The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who is on a working visit to the Russian Federation, will hold a meeting today in the Kremlin with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. The day before, the heads of state, along with other colleagues, participated in the Global Atomic Forum at VDNH in Moscow, which was dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the atomic industry in Russia.
The second day of the visit is a time for the bilateral Belarusian-Russian agenda. The heads of state meet quite often in various formats. This can be informal communication, for example, in Valaam, as well as fully official negotiations in the Kremlin or on the sidelines of international events. One thing remains unchanged - the format of dialogue is not just allied, but exclusively friendly. Recently, the phrase that there are no unsolvable problems in Belarus-Russia relations has become widespread. Perhaps this is also because Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin simply do not leave chances for such problems to accumulate, as has sometimes happened in the past.
The announcement of the upcoming negotiations in the Kremlin initially did not suggest any special intrigue. "The heads of state will synchronize their watches on the most pressing issues of Belarusian-Russian relations, discuss the situation in the region and the international agenda," the press service of the Belarusian leader reported succinctly and in a businesslike manner the day before the visit.
In a brief comment to TASS, the press secretary of the President of Belarus, Natalia Eismont, stated that the agenda for the negotiations includes the entire range of regional and bilateral relations.
Indeed, there are always many questions on the agenda, which is explained by the impressive scale of cooperation. It is enough to remind that relatively small Belarus is among the top four largest trading partners of Russia in terms of trade turnover with countries around the world, and in the CIS space, it confidently holds leadership in this regard.
As expected, the heads of state may also discuss security issues. For example, they can summarize the results of the recently concluded joint military exercises "West-2025" or discuss Vladimir Putin's proposal regarding the future of the Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms (START). Alexander Lukashenko has already called this step a "brilliant initiative."
Meanwhile, journalists are still interested in when the missile system "Oreshnik" will arrive in Belarus. It turns out it is "already on the way."
After participating in the atomic forum, Alexander Lukashenko did not go to rest but spent a long time in the Belarusian pavilion at VDNH, where he listened to a detailed report from Ambassador Alexander Rogozhnik about the state of affairs on the Russian vector. This includes the perspective of the upcoming high-level meeting.
"The bilateral agenda of the leaders is always rich. This includes the international part. This is, of course, the protection of the internal market within the framework of the Union State. This is also a unified industrial policy, issues in the oil and gas sector. The presidents always have something to discuss," the head of the diplomatic mission told journalists.