Talks between presidents of Russia and Belarus Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko have kicked off in Minsk.

According to the president of Belarus, a difficult time requires political will and focus on the result on all topics of the bilateral agenda.

"This is our response. We should by no means repeat the mistakes made after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Therefore, our unconditional priority is to address sensitive economic issues, which affect the well-being of the population and ultimately support our reforms in the public and political spheres," Lukashenko said at the beginning of the talks.

He noted that Russia and Belarus are open to dialogue with other states, including European ones. "I hope that in the near future they will listen to the voice of reason and we will move to a constructive discussion of the issues of common security and the future world order.

For his part, Putin noted that the countries have recently paid a lot of attention to security issues and cooperation in the international arena. "And on the whole, we should be satisfied with the way our relations are built on this track," Putin said.

He noted that the purpose of the meeting was to summarize some of the work of the governments and various agencies in a variety of areas and, above all, in the economy.

"There is a track related to military-technical cooperation. It is not only mutual supplies of some kind, but, in my opinion, which is extremely important, it is joint work, development and cooperation in this sphere, including the development of high-tech industries," Putin said. He also touched on cooperation in the space sphere. "The same is true in the space sphere. We have relevant plans."