Developing allied relations does not imply the loss of sovereignty, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with Russian journalist, editor-in-chief, host of the Echo of Moscow radio station Aleksei Venediktov on 24 December, Eurasia Diary reports citing Belta News.
“There is no contradiction here. Belarus and Russia are two sovereign states. Now we are promoting a kind of integration which does not devalue the sovereignty of Belarus and Russia in any way. What is sovereignty? It is the rule of government within a certain territory. Belarus has borders, Russia has borders, and power is exercised within these borders. Neither Belarus nor Russia divvies up any sovereignty,” the Belarusian leader said.
“As for the current integration agenda, we have the so-called 31st road map. You have already mentioned it, too. This is a plan of building supranational bodies, such as the parliament, the president, probably, and so on. By the way, Mr. Putin and I agreed not to discuss this topic. Yet the government tried to raise it again. However, I don't know why,” the president said. “Those 30 road maps are mostly focused on economic issues, such as customs affairs, business, territorial defense, etc. And we are currently using these plans of action. The economy is the cornerstone. Defense and diplomacy are also important, and that is what makes us different from the EAEU. The 31st road map is a plan of building or completing the formation of a union with supranational bodies.”
“We ruled out this topic back in Sochi. But some want to push it, especially through the government (I've recently read that Dmitry Medvedev mentioned this topic again). He was not present at the talks in St. Petersburg. So he does not even know what your president said. Literally when we were in St. Petersburg he said why we raise the topic of this 31st road map as we agreed with the Belarusian president not to touch these issues at all. Why do you again tie these issues with the issues of the tax system, the economy and so on?” the Belarusian head of state noted.