PRAVDA< Russia
June 23 2006

Ex-Soviet nations meet in Belarus to discuss defence and economic
cooperation

Leaders of Russia, Belarus and four Central Asian nations –
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – sat down for a
summit of their Eurasian Economic Community in the Belarusian
capital, focusing on plans to form a customs union.

Opening the talks, Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander
Lukashenko, also said they would discuss ways to coordinate
strategies for joining the World Trade Organization.

Talks on forming a customs union were also moving slowly, he said,
and the pact’s members so far had agreed on just over half of all
customs tariffs. "The process isn’t advancing as quickly as we would
like it to happen," Lukashenko said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who took over from Lukashenko on
Friday as the chairman of the group, tried to sound optimistic,
saying that "we are paying a close attention to forming the customs
union and have an intention to form it quickly."

Numerous previous attempts by the ex-Soviet nations to form a customs
union and coordinate their economic policies have failed because of
sharp differences in size and level of development of their
economies, as well as fears of Russian domination.

The same six leaders and Armenia’s president planned later Friday to
take part in a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization,
according to the AP.

Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe’s last dictator" by the United States and
other Western nations for his relentless crackdown on dissent, has
repeatedly accused the West of harboring aggressive intentions and
sought to build closer economic and military ties with Russia and
other ex-Soviet nations.