Necessary to update some provisions of Russia-Belarus Union treaty - outgoing Russian ambassador
MINSK. Aug 30 (Interfax) - Alexander Surikov, who is finishing his tenure as Russia's ambassador in Minsk, believes that certain provisions of the treaty on the establishment of the Russia-Belarus Union State should be updated.
"It is necessary to look at the treaty on the establishment of the union state from the point of view of whether some of its provisions are still relevant," Surikov told reporters in Moscow on Thursday.
"The union state is the only closest knit integration format at least within the CIS, in former Soviet soil," he said, adding that the "union state stays as relevant as ever."
However, it is necessary to "adjust something and probably provide the union state with the judicial aspect that the EAEU [Eurasian Economic Union], which is a subject of international law, has today," Surikov said.
However the union state brand ought to be preserved and developed further, he said.
Surikov met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko earlier on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 24 appointed Mikhail Babich Russia's ambassador in Minsk and also the Russian president's special envoy for trade and economic cooperation with Belarus. Surikov was relieved of the ambassador's duties.