Putin to continue policy of integration with Belarus

The foreign policy of Russia will not change under Vladimir Putin.

One of the first documents of the new president of Russia Vladimir Putin, who entered the office on May 7, was a decree “On measures for carrying out the foreign policy of Russia”, posted at kremlin.ru website.

The document gives special priority to integration in the post-Soviet space.

Putin has instructed the Foreign Ministry of Russia together with other federal bodies of executive power “to consider development of multifaceted interaction and integration processes in the territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States as a key direction of the foreign policy of Russia.”

According to the decree, in the relations of the CIS member states the executive power of Russia should:

- In a consistent manner to pursue the course for further development of complex cooperation of the CIS member states in the social, economic, humanitarian, law-enforcing and other spheres;

- To contribute to coming into force and practical implementation of the Agreement on the Free Trade Zone as of October 18, 2011;

- To coninue actively developing cooperation with Belarus in the framework of the Union State;

- To further deepen the Eurasian integration in the framework of the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and creation of the Eurasian Economic Union by January 1, 2015, proceeding from openness of these processes for joining by other states, primarily by the members of the Eurasian Economic community and members of the Commonwealth of Indepednet States, to promote international positioning of the new integration structures;

- To reinforce the Collective Security Treaty Organization, its mechanisms of dynamic response to modern challenges and threats and its peace-making potential, to improve foreign political coordination in the framework of this organization.