Dmitry Medvedev: Alexander Grigoryevich, colleagues,
Our talks have just ended, but I wanted to begin with something else: today is a special day in our peoples’ history. June 22 is a very tragic page and at the same time it is a special page in the history of Russia and Belarus.
I am in Brest for the first time. The feat of those who laid down their lives here for their Fatherland is truly unique, an act unprecedented in the history of humankind.
The defence of the Brest Fortress will forever remain one of the glorious pages in our shared history. We bow our heads in memory of those who fell in the liberation of our Motherland. I see the Belarusian President’s invitation to visit the Brest Fortress and the city of Brest as an opportunity to also pay tribute to the events that took place here many years ago.
Regarding the relations between our countries, I can describe them in no other terms but those of strategic partnership based on the treaty establishing the Union State. All our relations are guided by the main development outlines that form the foundation of the agreements between us.
We have reviewed our various cooperation projects and come to the conclusion that progress has been good overall. It is enough to look at the figures already given today. They speak for themselves. Our trade and economic cooperation continues to grow, and this is a good foundation on which to build up our cooperation in other areas too, social and economic and also political areas, all the more so as Russia’s development and that of Belarus are very closely tied together.
The integration process that is based on our union treaty and the integration based on our other international agreements also benefits our countries and peoples. Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko and I agreed to continue to respect these agreements and continue enriching them with concrete substance.
Making progress does not require us to set impossible goals. All we need to do is implement in full the agreements we already have. It is enough to build up a set of real, substantial and pragmatic projects and take the necessary economic and political measures and also the decisions that will ensure our common security, and we are committed to working in all these directions.
Our talks today have shown that we have very similar views of the current situation and the future outlook for relations between our countries. Our relations are very close and friendly and we will do everything we can to ensure that they remain so.
I would especially like to thank Alexander Grigoryevich for choosing Brest as the place for our first meeting. This is a symbol and a good sign. I hope that our future talks will bear evidence of the decisions that we have taken here today in Brest.
Thank you for your attention.
Alexander Lukashenko: Dmitry Anatolyevich, friends,
Continuing with Dmitry Anatolyevich’s words about how more than fifty years have now passed since the events that took place here, I want to say, first of all, that so long as these symbols live on we will always be together and will always be unvanquished: herein lies the symbolism of Brest.
Second, on a more personal note, I will not hide that I was watching Dmitry Anatolyevich, observing his reaction from the moment he stepped foot on this sacred ground. In his eyes and his behaviour I could see that he was thinking: good on the Belarusians for looking after this sacred site we share.
It was hard to imagine 10–12 years ago that this citadel could look so fine. There was ruin not only in people’s heads but also here on this hallowed ground. We managed to preserve this site, including with help from Russians. Many promised to help, but only Russians did, and we restored this monument. As Dmitry Anatolyevich said afterwards, answering my question, this work has been done with humanity, as human beings should do it in the face of God, so that people can come here and not just remember those terrible days but also find a source of human inspiration.
Truly terrible events did take place here. Today is a day of sorrow, but it is also a day of joy, for this day showed us already that we could not be conquered. Through the explosions and flames that abounded on that day we could see the common victory that would be ours five long years later, in May 1945. The words ‘from Brest to Berlin’ written on the Reichstag wall are very symbolic. We saw this at the museum.
I would like to thank the Russian President for taking this spiritual and human step as President and coming here to the Brest Fortress, to this land that we share. This is a sacred place for all of us, and we Belarusians will never try to appropriate it for ourselves alone. We could sense that among the people gathered in the square today probably half were Russians and half were Belarusians.
This shows that this is also a place of pilgrimage for Russians, and we are happy to see this. Not only Russians come here. We will preserve this sacred place for many, many generations to come. This is what unites us, what makes us strong and invincible.
As for today, I would like to begin on a personal note here too and say that it is very important for me, as I already said at the talks in expanded format, that from much of what was said by the Russian President today, the eight years during which I worked with the previous Russian President, were years in which we stumbled and fell at times, but in which we also had our successes and overall made great strides forward.
This can be seen by looking at the lives of our peoples. There can be no inventing the fact that people’s lives are better today. There are still many difficulties, and there will be perhaps even more difficulties ahead, but there can be no denying what Russia and Belarus have achieved. I remember how after the collapse of the Soviet Union we were all but beggars, had lost our sense of direction and could not see the way forward. We managed to haul ourselves up and move on. It was very important for me to hear the Russian President’s assessment, hear what we understand very well: that we now have the foundation we need for moving forward.
Also very positive was that we discussed our packages of agreements, taking them apart, leaving some issues still awaiting decision and moving ahead on others. There are some issues that are very symbolic, very important for us, and we need to settle them today. As Dmitry Anatolyevich said, these are political, economic, military-political and military-technical issues. There are many such issues. They come up every day. Even if there are as many as 15–20 such issues, we must take urgent action to settle them and show people that we are making progress.
Second, I also see as positive our commitment to the Union State treaty, to building our Union State. This treaty is working today and neither side is trying to abandon its commitments. This is very important. It shows that the new President is committed to continuing the policy that the Russian Federation has followed so far, and we in Belarus will also keep to this principle.
Of course, we also discussed many specific issues, economic issues, issues concerning equal rights for our citizens. I am very thankful to the Russian side for ratifying the agreements that we signed in St Petersburg two years ago. Practically all issues have been settled now. Our peoples will never be foreigners to each other: Belarusians will be at home in Russia and Russians at home in Belarus.
Of course, our dialogue will continue and we will come back to history and look ahead into the future. We have a big agenda today. I don’t hide the fact that I hope that we will look at the place where the line was drawn beneath the existence of a once great state, and perhaps on this sacred ground (it is good sacred ground, but I think it was somewhat desecrated in its time) will think of something good for our peoples.
Thank you.
Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you. I just want to say a couple more words.
I would like to thank Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko for the good weather and for the full-on support for Russia’s football team that we felt.
Thank you very much.
Alexander Lukashenko: Thank you to you for ensuring that our talks took place in such a good atmosphere.