Putin and Sidorski have not come to agreement on disputable issues

• 8.12.2010, 14:36

Talks of Prime Ministers of Belarus and Russia in Novo-Ogaryovo, Russia, have brought no results.

The consultations will be continued at the level of experts, journalists were told by the spokesperson of the Russian government Dmitry Peskov on December 8 following the results of the meeting.

As RIA Novosti reports, it had been planned that after the talks Putin and Sidorski would come out to the press, however as said by Peskov, no statements would be made.

As said by the spokesperson, the sides have not been able to come to agreement on all disputable issues. “As the talks are to be continued, this means they had not been able to come to understanding in all issues. Questions which require continuation of the talks are still left,” Peskov said without going into detail.

As BelaPAN reminds, in the beginning of the meeting Vladimir Putin stated that during today’s talks he hoped to resolve all remaining questions on formation of the Single Economic Space (SES).

“As it had been agreed, we meet in connection of actually finished joint work with a large parcel of documents, which is to become a foundation of the Single Economic Space of the three countries – Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan,” Putin said.

“However, as we have agreed,” he continued, “there are some rather sensitive matters for the economy of Russia and the economy of Belarus, which should be fixed by us in bilateral format, for the entire package of documents on the SES to be launched in real life.”

The main contradiction in Russian-Belarusian talks on the SES is the issue of export duties for oil and oil products. In the framework of the formation of the Single Economic Space Russia is ready to stop collecting export duties for oil, in case Belarus would agree to pay to Russian budget export duties for oil products in full. Minsk is not satisfied with such a variant.