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Integration is irreversible
The Commonwealth of Independent States has entered the second five-year period of its history. The evaluations of what we have achieved in this stage may differ, but one thing cannot be denied: the Commonwealth has established itself. More than that, it has become the optimal form of international collaboration that has allowed us to avoid situations of conflict in the stage of demarcation and to settle various disputable questions in a peaceful way. Despite the losses caused by lack of appropriate experience, the Commonwealth has been developing in a constructive way, its members have tried to preserve their own economic potential not at the expense of their partners but through combining possibilities and resources on the basis of mutual interest and benefit. The key document of the first five-year period of the CIS - Economic Union Creation Treaty (signed in September, 1993) has defined the consecutive stages of the reintegration of economic space under new conditions. As a member of the Intergovernmental economic committee presidium, I can assert with full confidence that its implementation has optimised the economic collaboration of CIS countries. This statement is well confirmed by the example of Bielorussia: in 1992 its foreign trade volumes with Commonwealth states amounted to $5015 million and in 1996 this figure increased to $8216 million. Within the Commonwealth framework in the general course of integration, new forms of extending bilateral collaboration were always investigated, and Russia and Bielorus have pioneered in this process transforming their community through the free trade and customs union agreements into the Union of two states on April, 2, 1997. Our prime objective is industrial potential, complementing each other, rejection of duplicating industries, creation of necessary conditions for developing direct contacts between the economic subjects of the two states. During the first year of its existence, the Community has proven its efficiency. Both countries have felt its benefits.The economy has, of course, remained in the focus of our relations. We have developed a strategy of joint economic policy. The creation of the Union allows the realization of the joint programs we have planned even further, with even greater economy of finances and time. Financial and industrial groups are, of course, a powerful form of integration. Several such groups are either created or being created by Russia and the Republic of Bielorus. These are: “Nizhny Novgorod cars” - this group makes trucks, “Tochnost” - organizes and produces goods that require scientific potential; “Formash” - produces artificial fibres and threads for the textile industry; “Vympel” creates systems of space and anti-missile defence and telecommunication; “Granit” - will be restoring, creating and improving the unified anti-aircraft defence system of CIS states; “Planar” is going to develop special technology and equipment for the production of microelectronic devices, “Diesel machinery engineering” - will be developing the diesel machinery industry, “Aerofin”, which restores connections between engine-producers, plane-repairing plants and airline companies. All this should, of course, be discussed at the St.Petersburg economic forum, because its program includes broad discussion of integration problems and the development of economic links between CIS countries and the entire world.
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