BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/11/2006

Belarusian President Makes Offer To Kyiv On Coordinating Gas-Transit Rates And Suggests Union State With Ukraine

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka suggested to a group of Ukrainian journalists in Minsk on November 23 that Belarus and Ukraine could work out a joint stance on "oil and gas issues," including a coordinated policy on tariffs for Russian natural gas transited to Europe, RFE/RL's Belarus Service and Belapan reported. "What if we pursued a single policy in talks with Russia on this matter?" Lukashenka said. "Would it be worse? It would be better. So let's do it." Lukashenka complained earlier in that interview about Moscow's declared intention to increase the price it charges Belarus for natural-gas exports in 2007 from the current rate of $47 per 1,000 cubic meters to possibly as much as $200. Lukashenka also suggested the possibility of raising tariffs for cargos in transit from and to Russia in order to make up for an anticipated Russian gas-price hike. "For instance, 100 million tons of cargos is annually transported from Western Europe to Russia and back via Belarus. We can earn a billion if we charge $10 per ton. And there will be no questions regarding the price of gas then," he said. JM

President Lukashenka said in the same interview with Ukrainian journalists in Minsk on November 23 that he would welcome the idea of a union state with Ukraine as a more feasible political formation than the declared union with Russia because of the "comparable" sizes of Belarus and Ukraine, RFE/RL's Belarus Service and Belapan reported. "Pray God it happens some time. Believe me, everybody would have to take this [Belarusian-Ukrainian] state into consideration. We would bargain a great deal from the world for our peoples," Lukashenka said. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2006/11/3-cee/cee-271106.asp