The message reads, in part:
“I warmly congratulate you on the Day of Unity between the Peoples of Russia and Belarus. On this day 20 years ago, our two nations signed their first integration treaty, which paved the way for the Union State project and laid the groundwork for the continuous promotion of our multifocal partnership.
In the most difficult of times, our peoples have been united by the unbreakable ties of shared history, spiritual kinship, sincere friendship, mutual support and solidarity. Russians and Belarusians will never forget the price they paid for freedom and independence, and will do everything to preserve the historical truth concerning the heroic deeds of Soviet soldiers, who fought the first battle against Nazi occupants at the Brest Fortress and achieved the Great Victory in May 1945.
The Union State created favourable conditions for the harmonisation of the Russian and Belarusian national legal systems. We implement mutually beneficial projects in a wide range of areas: the economy, the social sphere, infrastructure, science and technology, the humanitarian sphere and other sectors, and coordinate our foreign policy and national defence strategy. The integration experience we have gained has come in useful during the creation of broader unifying structures on the post-Soviet space.
I am confident that Russia-Belarus cooperation will continue to successfully develop for the benefit of our fraternal nations.”