MOSCOW, May 28. /ITAR-TASS/. A treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union to be sealed on paper in Astana on May 29 demonstrates a high level of cooperation between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and its constructive, equitable and open nature, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Nebenzya told ITAR-TASS on Wednesday.
The Eurasian Economic Union treaty is a document of historic significance, said Nebenzya.
“It turns a new page in the history of Eurasian economic integration,” he said. “Pursuant to its provisions, a full-fledged international organization will be established starting from January 1, 2015.”
“Launching the Eurasian Economic Union is a natural result of our states’ concerted efforts to form a stable, efficient and up-to-date integration association,” Nebenzya said. “The union under formation was based on the idea of most advanced approaches and best international practice. This refers to institutions which were created to be compact, result-oriented and non-bureaucratized. And this also refers to the introduction within the Eurasian Economic Union of new forms and methods of process management and the use of modern economic policy tools.”
The Russian diplomat said the Eurasian Economic Union provided its member states with “new and unique opportunities which can and should be used to increase their competitive advantage in the global economy”.
Establishing the Eurasian Economic Union “expands opportunities for business, for implementation of joint investment and cooperation projects, and for coordination on external markets,” Nebenzya said.
“People of our countries should feel the positive results from developing this integration,” he added.
Over the last 20 years, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan managed to achieve impressive results on their way towards integration, towards creating a full-fledged Customs Union and starting the formation of the common economic space. The creation of the Eurasian Economic Union would be an entirely new step towards integration cooperation, the diplomat said.
From January 1, 2015, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will switch to a high level of integration envisaging the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union based on the Customs Union, the common economic space and the potential accumulated by the Eurasian Economic Community.
The treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union is expected to be signed by the president of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus - Nursultan Nazarbayev, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko - at the Astana summit on May 29.