Tuesday, December 26 2023 09:50

ArmInfo. From January 1, 2024, Russia will hand over the chairmanship of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to Armenia, RF President Vladimir Putin stated at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the restricted-format meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.

In his speech, the Russian leader said, in particular:

Good afternoon, colleagues,

As agreed, we are meeting today in St Petersburg, and I am pleased to welcome you all.

We have a busy agenda. After holding the restricted-format meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, we will bring in the delegations and continue our work in a broader format.

Today, we will discuss a range of important, I would even say fundamental, issues related to deepening Eurasian integration. In particular, we are expected to approve a declaration, drafted on the Russian side's initiative, on the further development of economic processes within our association for the period to 2030 and further to 2045. Essentially, this is a new programme document that includes specific measures to step up the joint efforts in key industries and defines additional areas of interaction, such as the climate agenda, healthcare, tourism, and several others.

Importantly, governments, agencies, and experts from all member countries participated in drafting the declaration. I look forward to us approving the declaration by way of adopting a resolution of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.

I would like to especially note that in the run-up to our meeting, a free trade agreement between the EAEU and Iran was signed. This agreement can have a truly significant impact on strengthening the EAEU's ties with one of the largest and technologically advanced economies in the Eurasian region.

Once the agreement comes into force, practically all categories of goods produced in the Union will obtain duty-free access to the extensive Iranian market with 90 million consumers, and non-tariff barriers will be significantly reduced.

Businesses from our respective countries that engage in active trading with their Iranian partners are interested in this, and the environment for such business cooperation will now be tangibly improved.

Obviously, liberalisation of trade with Iran will give a good additional impetus to the development of the transport-logistics system and transport-logistics routes, such as the North-South international corridor, that connect all our states. It will create prerequisites for the build-up of scientific and production cooperation, tourist and delegation exchanges and contacts between people in general.

During the current meeting, we will also make personnel decisions, primarily endorse a new chair and some members of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission. Based on the rotation principle, the position of the Commission's chair will go to a representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan on February 1, 2024.  Today, our friends from Kazakhstan will nominate their candidate for this position.

Due to the expiration of terms of a number of judges of the EAEU Court, candidates for new members of this body have been submitted for our approval. They will start working on January 1, 2024.

Naturally, many other specific issues of economic interaction, customs and tariffs regulations, investment policy and the functioning of the EAEU common markets have also been included in our agenda.  Colleagues will have an opportunity to express their views on all problems in our Union's activities that worry them.

Overall, talking about cooperation in the EAEU, I would like to state with satisfaction that it is progressing very successfully and dynamically, allowing us to more fully tap the economic potential of our nations. We are cooperating on the principles of mutual benefit and respect, as well as consideration of each other's interests. The Eurasian Union will soon be 10 years old. Over this period, the scale of trade has almost doubled and the aggregate GDP of the EAEU countries has grown from US$1.6 trillion to US$2.5 trillion.  We have created deep common markets of goods, services, capital, and workforce, which are operating in line with agreed-upon rules. The main point is that the Eurasian Union has become an authoritative international integration association with an efficient structure and a good foundation. Its work directly contributes to improving the well-being and living standards of our people.

The restricted-format meeting was followed by an expanded-format meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the expanded-format meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council

We have just concluded the restricted-format meeting.

I would like to begin by welcoming Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade of the Islamic Republic of Iran Abbas Aliabadi. I will come to it later in my speech, but I would like to note that during the restricted- format meeting today, we noted the signing of an agreement on cooperation and free trade zone between the EAEU and the Islamic Republic of Iran. I think it is a positive step forward, and I will elaborate on it further.

As I earlier mentioned, the restricted-format meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council has just concluded. We exchanged views on important aspects of our association's activities and outlined strategic perspectives for deepening integration cooperation. In particular, we discussed the adoption of a declaration on the further promotion of economic processes within the EAEU to 2030 and for the period up to 2045.  This idea was approved, and all members of the Supreme Council agreed to adopt the declaration, and we will draft the corresponding decision closer to the end of this meeting.

Essentially, the declaration is a new programme document which outlines steps to enhance joint efforts in key industries and identifies additional areas of cooperation.

Our respective economic ministers, experts and specialised professionals have done a good job coordinating the declaration language. The document incorporates the vision of all five Union countries on the future of Eurasian integration and fully reflects the opinions and interests of each EAEU participant and appears to be quite robust.

During the restricted-format meeting, we summed up the main results of the EAEU activities during the Russian chairmanship which will conclude on December 31. Without a doubt, the Russian side is grateful to all its Union partners for their constructive collaboration, including the efforts to implement the priorities of our chairmanship. Interaction within the Union continues to expand dynamically and successfully across all key areas of integration, despite the existing difficulties arising from the challenging international situation.

We are pleased to note that this year steady economic growth was recorded in all members of the association. Thus, in Russia, GDP added three percent in the first three quarters and we expect it to reach 3.5 percent for the annual results. Other EAEU countries have also recorded a substantial increase in GDP.  To my knowledge, it will surpass nine percent in Armenia over nine months, which is a very good figure.

In Kyrgyzstan, growth is over four percent and in Belarus it is the same as in Russia - 3.5 percent.

Industrial production in the EAEU has gone up by 3.5 percent. The construction industry has grown 9.3 percent. Importantly, the number of unemployed in the EAEU has gone down 14.2 percent while in Russia the unemployment rate has dropped to its historical low of less than three percent - 2.9 percent.

According to the available data, in the first nine months of this year, trade between our five states grew by 8.9 percent. Moreover, its structure is improving - deliveries of finished high-tech products are going up with a simultaneous decrease in the share of raw material components.

Importantly, the share of national currencies in mutual settlements had surpassed 90 percent. No doubt, this indicator will continue growing given the joint financial measures taken by our countries.

The range of preferential foreign trade partners of the five nations is expanding. As I already said in the beginning, today we had the signing ceremony for a free trade agreement between the EAEU and Iran. I would like to congratulate all of us and the Iranian Minister of Industry and Trade who is present - Mr Aliabadi - on completing work on this strategic document.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the biggest economies in Eurasia, a technologically advanced state, and a key link in the southern trade route between the EAEU markets on the one hand and the countries of the Middle East and South Asia, on the other. Therefore, strengthening ties with that country is bound to bring obvious benefits to all participants of our association, including the Islamic Republic of Iran itself.

As we know, the provisional trade agreement between the EAEU and Iran, which was operating since 2019, allowed us to double our trade although it covered only a small list of commodity items. Meanwhile, under the agreement signed today, tariff exemptions will apply to over 85 percent of our commodity range and to more than 90 percent of the current volume of trade of our countries with the Islamic Republic of Iran. We hope that all member countries will promptly perform all the necessary ratification procedures.

I want to remind you that important agreements are currently being drafted with other countries with strong economic potential. I mean a preferential agreement between the EAEU and Egypt, one of our key partners in the Arab world and Africa with which EAEU nations have close relations and intensive trade and economic contacts. Work on a draft free trade agreement with Egypt is at a very advanced stage.  And we are certainly interested in having it signed as soon as possible.

Apart from that, the Eurasian Commission is negotiating with the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. The formation of free trade zones with these countries will further increase the export potential of the EAEU, step up mutual supplies to the markets of friendly states and thus give additional impetus the Union's economies, as well as enlarge and diversify our common market.

Overall, as the EAEU's authority and economic weight grows, an increasing number of countries and international organisations are showing interest in establishing mutually beneficial contacts with the EAEU.  We have already established close cooperation with such major regional structures as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

The work on aligning integration processes within the EAEU and China's Belt and Road Initiative is also yielding real results.

Going back to cooperation within the EAEU itself, I would like to emphasise that a number of important decisions have been taken this year in the areas of industrial cooperation, localisation of production, and deepening cooperation in agriculture and food security.

I will note, in particular, that at the Moscow EAEU summit in May we endorsed the launch of a special financing mechanism providing for special privileges for economic projects involving three or more member countries of the Union.