Ex-Soviet nations meet in Belarus to discuss defence and economic cooperation

Leaders of Russia, Belarus and four Central Asian nations - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - sat down for a summit of their Eurasian Economic Community in the Belarusian capital, focusing on plans to form a customs union.

Photo: Ex-Soviet nations meet in Belarus to discuss defence and economic cooperation

Ex-Soviet nations meet in Belarus to discuss defence and economic cooperation

Opening the talks, Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, also said they would discuss ways to coordinate strategies for joining the World Trade Organization.

Talks on forming a customs union were also moving slowly, he said, and the pact's members so far had agreed on just over half of all customs tariffs. "The process isn't advancing as quickly as we would like it to happen," Lukashenko said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who took over from Lukashenko on Friday as the chairman of the group, tried to sound optimistic, saying that "we are paying a close attention to forming the customs union and have an intention to form it quickly."

Numerous previous attempts by the ex-Soviet nations to form a customs union and coordinate their economic policies have failed because of sharp differences in size and level of development of their economies, as well as fears of Russian domination.

The same six leaders and Armenia's president planned later Friday to take part in a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, according to the AP.

Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by the United States and other Western nations for his relentless crackdown on dissent, has repeatedly accused the West of harboring aggressive intentions and sought to build closer economic and military ties with Russia and other ex-Soviet nations.