Belarus and Russia have signed an energy budget up to 2020, first vice-premier Vladimir Semashko told reporters on January 30. The document was adopted on January 27 in Moscow. Under the budget, Russia is expected to push up the supplies of natural gas to Belarus from 21 billion cubic meters to 25 billion cubic meters per annum. The supplies of oil are presently under consideration. The issue is to be decreed upon in the second half of 2006. Belarus expects to enhance consumption of oil...

Alexander Lukashenko’s initiative group has collected 1,574,239 signatures to support the nomination of the incumbent president as a candidate for the presidency, reads a press release of the initiative group. In this connection head of the initiative group Viktor Sheiman has thanked warmly those citizens of Belarus who supported the candidature of Alexander Lukashenko to be nominated for presidency. The number of people supporting the incumbent president is growing. “This is a...

Russia intends to continue supporting Belarus in the international arena, president of Russia Vladimir Putin stated today at the meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Belarus-Russia Union State. One of the issues on the agenda was discussion of a program of coordinated actions in the sphere of the foreign policy of the Union State Treaty member-states for 2004-2005. “There are not many countries, which enjoy sovereignty in the world. Though they are sovereign their foreign policy...

January 24 will see Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko start a working visit to the Russian Federation, the presidential press service told BelTA. In St Petersburg Alexander Lukashenko will partake in sittings of the Union Supreme State Council and the Interstate Council of the Eurasian Economic Community. The programme of stay includes a range of bilateral meetings with heads of EurAsEC member-states. The agenda of the Supreme State Council sitting includes preparation of a draft...

In 2005 Belarus met 14 out of 16 most important parameters of the socio-economic development forecast stipulated in decree #437 of the president of the Republic of Belarus of September 10, 2004. As BelTA has been told in the press service of the economy ministry of Belarus, production growth in the key branches of the national economy and better qualitative parameters of the economy in 2005 enabled the country to increase the GDP by 9.2 per cent as against 2004 while the 2005 forecast...

The final extended meeting of the Chernobyl committee will be held on January 24 in the children’s republican recuperation center “Zhdanovichi”, BelTA has been told in the press service of the Chernobyl committee. The meeting will sum up the results of the governmental program to minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe for 2001-2005. Chairman of the Chernobyl committee Vladimir Tsalko will make a speech at the meeting. Attending the meeting will be high-rank officials...

The development of a reliable system of national security in Belarus is the most important task, head of state Alexander Lukashenko has said today. “We are doing everything possible for the Belarusian army to be one of the best in the post-Soviet countries. For that we have laid out all necessary conditions”, the president stressed when receiving a report of the defense ministry. Alexander Lukashenko noted that the results of an unexpected check-up of the armed forces, in particular,...

Permanent representative of Belarus in the United Nations Andrei Dapkiunas has been unanimously elected chairman of the Executive Council of the United Nations Children’s Fund /UNICEF/, BelTA has been told in the foreign ministry. For the first time of its membership in the UN, Belarus will head the UNICEF Executive Council. Within the framework of the current session of the UNICEF Executive Council in New York, the pivotal issue for Belarus will be an approval of the UNICEF program for...

On January 4 the president of Belarus signed decree #5 to approve laws development plan for 2006. As BelTA was informed in the presidential press service, the document was drawn up taking into account more than 140 corresponding proposals put forward by the state bodies concerned. The plan aims to fill up the gaps in the legal activities in different spheres of life of the state and to bring laws in line with the president’s decisions, international agreements of Belarus and to coordinate...

JSC Beltransgaz and Gazprom signed a contract for gas delivery to Belarus and its transit across the territory of this republic in 2006. On December 27 the document was signed by deputy chairman of Gazprom Alexander Ryazanov and Beltransgaz general director Dmitriy Kazakov, the press-service of the Russian gas concern told BelTA. In line with the contract, in 2006 Gazprom will deliver 21 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Belarus including 1,5 billion cubic meters if technical...