The issues of forming common energy markets within the Union State, the growth of mutual trade and the increase in the number of flights between the two countries were discussed at the talks in Moscow by Prime Ministers of Russia and Belarus Roman Golovchenko and Mikhail Mishustin, Roman Golovchenko announced on Tuesday. This reported by TASS.

"We have discussed various issues: formation of common energy markets, issues of unhindered access to the market, participation of Belarusian enterprises in state municipal purchases in Russia, increasing the number of flights," Golovchenko was quoted by BelTA news agency.

According to him, the economic interaction agenda between the countries is extensive. "It is necessary to restore the trade turnover, which has slightly subsided due to the pandemic," Golovchenko said.

Golovchenko said earlier that in 2020, Belarus and Russia will focus on forming common energy markets in the Union State and the Eurasian Economic Union. "There are a number of urgent tasks that we have to work on this year. Among them is the search for systemic solutions to common energy markets in the Union State and the EAEU,"the Belarusian Prime Minister said.

Golovchenko pointed out, the parties will have to deal with the regulation of systemic issues of product access to the common market. He added that the parties continue to actively work on the integration agenda, on the main areas implementing provisions of the agreement on the creation of the Union State.

Meanwhile, the volume of mutual trade between Belarus and Russia last year decreased by 20% due to the coronavirus pandemic, Golovchenko said. He recalled that Russia remains the largest economic partner for Belarus. "We have fixed the share of Russia in foreign trade in goods and services [in the amount of] 44% in 11 months of last year. We expect that by the end of December (2020 - TASS) it will grow even more and will probably approach 50%," Golovchenko said.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.