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The two presidents discussed current issues of Russian-Belarusian cooperation, including in the context of integration within the framework of the Union State.

The last time they met was on December 20, 2019 in St Petersburg, where Alexander Lukashenko arrived for a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.

During several telephone conversations the two presidents had on December 30 and 31, 2019, they held in-depth discussions on Russian oil and gas deliveries to Belarus.

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Beginning of Russian-Belarusian talks

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, colleagues,

Unfortunately, our delegation has not yet arrived due to weather conditions. I hope they will be able to join us later.

But we can start our discussion, talk about current affairs. I believe that eventually we will be talking about more than just current issues.

There are many issues on our agenda today. Over the past hour, or hour and a half, of our conversation with Mr Lukashenko, we covered many topics of mutual interest, as they say. Therefore, we can continue our conversation in the expanded format, and when our colleagues join us, we will move on to the second round. I believe that today we are undoubtedly going to have fruitful talks.

I would like to thank you for coming to Russia for this meeting.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko: Thank you.

We have indeed discussed many issues, going as far back as the time when we lived together in one state; we discussed many dates and subjects we remember from our shared history.

We not only discussed matters of mutual interest, as Mr Putin said, but also issues that concern many of our neighbours, the former Soviet republics and the policies we and they currently pursue.

Overall, we discussed many things, and eventually we returned to the present, and we decided to continue our conversation not one-on-one, but together with those who are involved in this process as well.

And then we will, as Mr Putin said, take a pause. We have many other issues on the agenda. We will resume this discussion when the Russian delegation arrives. The skies seem to have cleared. We will continue our discussion later. There is a lot to discuss and a lot to be done.

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