Putin and Lukashenko Meet to Develop a Security Concept for Their Union-State

President Alexander Lukashenko met on April 6 for six hours, including a working dinner, with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. This was to work out the details of the integration of their two economies and defense capabilities in an enhancement of their joint Union State (initiated in 1999 when the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation signed the Union State treaty on December 9 of that year.) The following day, they joined a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Union State, and discussed the development of the Security Concept of the Union State. The notion of the Union State had been proposed in 1996 by President Putin and was agreed to by President Lukashenko, but with the war in Ukraine and more NATO forces on the borders of both Russia and Belarus, this has now brought them much closer than before. Lukashenko said that the details of the Concept would be revealed the next day.