Moscow, Nov. 4 (ItAR-Tass) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and His Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday approved the union Plan -- a document defining further integration between Moscow and Minsk. The two leaders also approved a new version of the military doctrine and the idea of migration during a meeting of the Top State Council of the Russia-Belarus Alliance held via video link.

The Russian leader pledged that Moscow would continue to "provide assistance to the brotherly belarusian people" in the future. The Belarusian leader said the alliance was a "priority of priorities" for Minsk. After more than three years of research, the alliance's plan was finally agreed in early September 2021.

The documents approved are mainly about economic integration: creating a common market for natural gas, oil and its products and electricity, unifying agricultural and industrial policies and setting common rules in various areas, the report said. In Mr Lukashenka's words, Russia and Belarus are in effect starting to "restart the joint economic space".

It is now up to Moscow and Minsk to implement what has already been agreed. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told the meeting that more than 400 decrees and bilateral agreements must be adopted for this purpose. "It's essentially creating new rules," he said. It's a massive undertaking."

The new alliance military doctrine, which replaced the 2001 version, has been in the works for several years. Two weeks ago, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the new document was designed to counter threats and pressure from the "western collective".

The two sides did not say at the meeting what specific provisions the new doctrine changed, but Mr. Lukashenka stressed that Russia and Belarus were preparing to strengthen the regional military cluster of the alliance's countries, "which recent events have shown to be a reliable security shield for the entire post-Soviet space."

On a common immigration policy ideas, fitting into the file includes: about the exchange of stay in Russia and belarus third country citizens information agreement, agreement on joint effort to crack down on illegal immigration, agreements on mutual recognition of visa - as the Russian foreign ministry said earlier that the results will promote to form the "schengen mechanism" of the two countries.

At the meeting, Mr. Putin stressed that true economic integration could not be achieved "without progress in establishing a unified immigration and visa space," but that "all security risks must be taken into account."

Russian President Vladimir Putin and His Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree on the integration of the Russia-Belarus alliance, RIA Novosti reported in Moscow on November 4. The decree defines 28 alliance plans agreed by the two sides in September.

The union's plans involve integration of currency regimes, common principles for indirect taxation and a common stance on pensions, social security and counter-terrorism. Macroeconomic policies will also be unified, including integration of payment systems, coordination of monetary-credit policies and formation of a joint oil and gas market.

In addition, the two leaders adopted a new military doctrine and immigration policy ideas for the alliance countries.

Dmitry Mezentsev, state Secretary of the Union of Russia and Belarus, said earlier that the new military doctrine will help improve the coordination of the two countries' defense policies and timely adapt to the tasks of the two defense ministries.

Mezentsev pointed out that the concept of migration policy will clarify the activities of the Interior Ministry, security agencies and foreign ministry in the field of migration, while taking into account the increase of migration flows.