On November 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Lukashenko signed a decree on the integration of the Union State at a video conference of the Supreme State Council of the Russian-Belarusian Union held on the same day.

The signing of the decree on the integration of the Union State between Russia and Belarus, Yang Shu, director of the Institute of Central Asian Studies at Lanzhou University, said in an interview with Globes that this is a good thing for both countries, as bilateral relations have been further deepened, meaning a "more comprehensive Russian-Belarusian alliance" may be realized in the future. "Despite the conflicts between the two countries, the concept of a Russian-Belarusian alliance has been proposed for almost 30 years, before the two countries signed the Treaty on the Union State in 1999. It's kind of getting a good result so far." Yang Shu said.

Speaking about the reasons that led to the signing of the decree on integration between the two countries, YangShu said, "According to a previous survey, Belarus was one of the most identified republics in the Soviet Union. This indicates, to some extent, that Belarus currently identifies with Russia."

In addition, the general environment currently faced by the two countries is one of the reasons.YangShu mentioned that Belarus had a relatively good level of development in terms of economy, industrial base, education, etc. during the Soviet period, and the gap with Russia was not significant. Yang Shu mentioned that Belarus had a relatively good level of development in terms of economy, industrial base, education, etc. during the Soviet period, and the gap with Russia was not too significant. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, economic development has been very difficult due to various reasons, such as Belarus being a landlocked country with no access to the sea and relatively poor natural resources.The agreement includes the integration of 28 industries and is an agreement with the main economic content. There is no doubt that Russia will help Belarus more.

Yang Shu said that the next still depends on the specific implementation effect of the two countries after the signing of the agreement, which also means that the positive impact of the signing of the agreement on the two countries remains to be seen, "after the signing of the agreement, the two countries can not immediately put all the obstacles and problems all solved."

"Their concern is more on the geopolitical side." Yang added that NATO's eastward expansion is one of the notable threats to Russia. The increased integration of Russia and Belarus will undoubtedly have related geopolitical implications. It will move Russia's security borders about 400 kilometers to the west. This is clearly of great significance in changing Russia's geostrategic position in its confrontation with NATO. "After the signing of the agreement, Putin stressed the importance of stability and security of the external borders of the two countries. It does not seem to me that it was said casually."He said.