Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetian met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Minsk on the sidelines of a Eurasian Intergovernmental Council session held in the Belarus capital on Thursday.
According to the press service of the Armenian government, the two premiers held “private talks” during which they stressed the “strategic allied relations” that connect Armenia and Russia.
“Prime ministers Karen Karapetian and Dmitry Medvedev stressed the need to take steps to further expand bilateral trade and economic relations, considering that the involvement of Armenia and Russia in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) opens up new opportunities and prospects for cooperation,” the report said.
Earlier, addressing the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council’s enlarged meeting, Karapetian reportedly stressed that the EEU’s international activity and its economic relations with third countries and key integration associations “above all are intended to promote the modernization of the national economies of the Member States and enhance their competitiveness.”
“In this context, I would highlight the need for consistent efforts with the specialized agencies of the UN system, as well as toward outlining the scope of interaction with the European Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and other organizations,” he said, as quoted by the government press service.
“We believe that the ongoing talks with China, Israel and Serbia, in particular, need to be broadened through the launch of substantive consideration of the expediency of negotiations with other countries.”
“Taking into account the work on the conclusion of a possible free trade zone agreement with the Republic of India, it seems reasonable that the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council should also consider the question of starting talks over the EEU-India track in December 2016 without linking it to the issue of cooperation in the multilateral EEU-SCO format,” Karapetian continued.
“I believe it to be in our common interest to conclude a relevant agreement with Iran. We believe that there is an opportunity to simultaneously work on the scheme ensuring the implementation of an interim agreement in parallel with the EEU-Iran negotiations on conclusion of a free (preferential) trade agreement.”
According to Karapetian, Armenia believes that “the expansion of international and multi-format cooperation must be based on real premises and structured so as to take into account the actual willingness of third countries to establish cooperation with both individual EEU-member States and the Eurasian Economic Union, as a whole.”
Considering the differences in the regulatory frameworks of the EEU Member States, the head of the Armenian government said that Armenia fully shares the approach that “focuses on ensuring the legitimacy of the turnover of goods across the EEU customs territory through the introduction of a traceability mechanism.”
“Given the importance of the issue and its complexity, it is important to build further work proceeding from the belief that it should not lead to additional tax and customs encumbrances, higher prices for goods and services and, at the same time, would not adversely affect the Member States’ investment attractiveness and macroeconomic indicators,” Karapetian said.
“This mechanism needs to be introduced in such a way that its activation would not lead in any way to the opposition of one of the pillars of our Union – the free movement of goods. Therefore, we are ready to actively cooperate with the countries in a bid to work out the problems existing in this regard. I believe that the joint efforts to implement the agreements reached today will allow significant progress on the integration path. The Armenian side is ready for close cooperation with all partners,” the Armenian prime minister concluded.
The enlarged meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council discussed and approved a number of documents. In particular, the Council approved the unified budget for 2017 and the 2015 budget performance of EEU bodies.
The meeting reportedly highlighted the need for closer cooperation with third countries, as well as deepening of economic and trade relations between the Member States. In particular, the speakers emphasized that a number of countries have shown interest in cooperation with the EEU in various formats, and appropriate steps are being taken to that effect.
On Friday, Prime Minister Karapetian participated in the meeting of the heads of the EEU member countries' governments.
Armenia formally joined the EEU in January 2015. The Union’s current members are also Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Facebook Forum