OREANDA-NEWS Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a Belarusian-Russian agreement on the formation of a unified electric energy market of the Union State in Minsk on Friday, RIA Novosti correspondent reports.

The document was signed following a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.

The two sides had previously completed the domestic procedures necessary for signing the agreement at the highest level. The decision to sign the document at the level of heads of state is due to the fact that the draft document was developed as a document that is part of the law of the Union State and forms a unified market. It is assumed that the treaty will have to go through the ratification procedure.

The head of the Ministry of Energy of Belarus, Alexei Kushnarenko, told reporters earlier on Friday that the implementation of the first stage of the formation of a unified electricity market in the Union State will begin in 2025.

At this stage, it is assumed that all relations will be built through authorized network operators, which will be determined from the Belarusian and Russian sides. In general, it is planned that the market will be formed in stages, taking into account the parallel operation of two power systems with their technological and organizational features. The market will operate on the basis of rules. In the first half of next year, the rules for the functioning of the unified electricity market of the Union State will be agreed upon.