MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. The Union State of Russia and Belarus has not received any applications for accession from other states, State Secretary of the Union State Sergey Glazyev told TASS.
Previously, Glazyev mentioned that the legal framework of the Union State makes it possible for other states to join the Union.
"The leaders of both states have always emphasized the integration being voluntary. This view is shared by Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin who, within the Eurasian Economic Union and the CSTO [the Collective Security Treaty Organization], have stressed that the integration was conducted on a voluntary basis. And yet we have not received any applications," Glazyev said.
On April 2, 1996, Moscow hosted a meeting between the president of Russia Boris Yeltsin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. They signed the founding Treaty on the Establishment of a Community. The aim of the Treaty was to establish political and economic union. At the same time, the Treaty stressed that Russia and Belarus remained autonomous subjects of the international law, maintaining their sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. The Treaty was open for admission of other states sharing the same values. On April 2, 1997, the Community of Russia and Belarus was transformed into the Union of Russia and Belarus (the Day of Unity of the Peoples of Russia is Belarus is celebrated on April 2). The parties emphasized that it would become a new step in the process of integration of the states.
