ArmInfo. The year 2016 for the Eurasian Economic Union was not easy due to the unfavorable external financial impact, Kazakh Ambassador to Armenia Timur Urazayev said at the Eurasian Export Club's annual meeting on "Armenia in EEU and CSTO: Experience, Achievements, Prospects".
Nevertheless, he said, the commodity turnover among the EEU countries grew, and in monetary terms Armenia succeeded more than the other EEU member states, because the devaluation in the country was lower. "Armenia also demonstrated higher commodity turnover within the EEU than the other countries did - more than 26%," Ambassador Urazayev said, stressing that the military-political component of EEU cooperation is also successfully developing.
For his part, Ambassador of Belarus to Armenia Igor Nazaruk said that it would be much harder for the EEU countries to resist the global challenges without consolidation in a single integration structure. "At present we are working hard to promote our cooperation without restrictions. In this regard, the biggest success has been achieved by Russia and Belarus and their experience can be applied in the other EEU countries," the diplomat said, noting that the cooperation between Armenia and Belarus is also developing successfully and the 2-fold growth of commodity turnover between the two countries is direct evidence of it. Nazaruk also stressed that non-EEU countries are also interested in Eurasian cooperation. "I think we will shortly learn about good arrangements with China," he said.
First Counselor at the Russian Embassy in Armenia Andrey Ivanov read out the greeting remarks of Ambassador Ivan Volynkin. In particular, the remarks stressed the importance of integration in the Eurasian space to resist the external challenges. He pointed out the need to develop joint approaches to settle the current problems and to foster economic development of the EEU member countries. "The EEU consistently calls for prevention of new dividing lines and difficulties for economic relations with foreign partners and other integration groups," Ambassador Volynkin noted in his remarks. He also pointed out that there is still a lot to do for the fullest possible disclosure of integration cooperation within the EEU and the Customs Union. He praised the effective activity of Armenia in the EEU snd CSTO.