MINSK, June 8 (RIA Novosti) - President Alexander Lukashenko said Belarus would never agree to becoming a part of Russia, but suggested a project to bind the two former Soviet republics more tightly together was still possible.
Russia and Belarus have been mulling the formation of a union state since they signed an agreement on April 2, 1997 on creating a common economic, customs, and political space, but negotiations have stalled recently over a number of issues, including a proposal by Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom to hike gas prices for Belarus.
"We do not need [to become part of Russia]," Lukashenko said at a meeting with a Russian regional governor. "Belarus is a self-sufficient country."
On April 10, Gazprom said it planned to triple gas prices for Belarus from the current level of $46.68 per 1,000 cu m - a move expected to tear a hole of around $2 billion in the Belarusian budget.
The Russian energy giant is also in talks with Beltransgaz, which owns pipelines leading to Europe - Gazprom's main customer - on taking a stake in the Belarusian state pipeline company. Control over the country's pipeline network is reportedly seen as a condition for preserving preferential prices for Belarus.
Lukashenko said in reply to the possible price hikes that there could be no talk of a union state.
But at his meeting Thursday with Altai Territory Governor Alexander Karlin, Lukashenko said Belarus remained committed to integration, even though negotiations on the union state were stumbling over some issues.
"We are not against a union state contrary to what some say," he said. "The world consists of unions today and they are the future."
Efforts to launch the union state include talks on introducing a single ruble currency for both countries. The Russian official overseeing the union state project, Pavel Borodin, said earlier this week that the currency would be put into circulation before the end of 2006. The two countries have also adopted measures including a common visa space and a joint customs committee.
But negotiations have been advancing slowly, and Lukashenko said the common currency issue had to be spelled out in a constitutional act of the union state - a transitional constitution - to be adopted by referendum. Borodin said Monday the referendum could be held in late 2006 or early 2007.
