BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

24/11/2006

Lukashenko: CIS must not be dismantled

MINSK. Nov 24 (Interfax) - Belarus is categorically against the disintegration of the CIS, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said.

"The CIS is not in anybody's way. There is no need to reduce or destroy the CIS under the pretense of reforming it. It is not so costly," Lukashenko said in his meeting with CIS heads on Friday.

It is necessary to maintain the structure of CIS bodies. "This is an umbrella for cooperation between our departments, it is a good basis for cooperation," he said.

"We are categorically against destroying the CIS, but it needs to be put in order, organizationally and personnel-wise," Belarussian president said.

He says this issue could be a subject for discussion at the CIS summit on November 28.

Lukashenko welcomed the fact Viktor Yanukovych became the prime minister of Ukraine. "The arrival of Viktor Yanukovych will strengthen our cooperation, and Ukraine should strengthen the economic component of the Commonwealth," Lukashenko said.

Not solving the existing problems could hurt the commonwealth: "We can lose, if we continue tumbling in the same way we did 15 years ago when we took decisions and failed to implement them," he said.

One should solve the existing problems, he said. "If Moldova has problems, let us discuss them, if Georgia [has problems] - let us not lose it [Georgia], this is our country," he said.

It is high time to take decisions that can be implemented, otherwise "in three-four years we [CIS] will be pulled apart," he said.

The problem of delivering goods made in the CIS from one country to another needs to be solved. "If Kazakhstan cannot deliver its commodities here, it will look to neighboring markets, primarily to China, and if Ukraine does not find its interests here, then it will look for them somewhere else," Lukashenko said.

Source:

http://www.interfax.com/3/216353/news.aspx