EURASEC MINISTER HOPES ARMENIA WILL BE CO-FOUNDER OF EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION
Central Asia General Newswire
September 11, 2013 Wednesday 1:58 PM MSK
MOSCOW. Sept 11
Eurasian Economic Commission Trade Minister Andrei Slepnev hopes
Armenia will become a co-founder of a Eurasian Economic Union.
“I would say that we all face very intensive work so that over the
next year the bulk of the work can be done so that we are founders
together of a Eurasian Economic Union,” he told the press on the
sidelines of the KomAuto 2013 conference, which was organized by the
newspaper Vedomosti in Moscow on Tuesday.
The key here is the decision by Armenia, he said. “If they have
decided to join there will of course be a large number of technical
issues and perhaps some difficult ones – but this is another aspect.
The main thing is political will and the decision,” he said.
Commenting on work leading up to Armenia joining the Customs Union,
Slepnev said Armenian legislation needs to be adapted with regard
customs, technical and foreign trade regulation. “The issues will
obviously require a lot of intensive joint work. But, we have an
example before our eyes in, let’s say, the European Union, which
resolves these issues.”
He said the work leading toward Armenia joining the Customs Union
should not be synchronized with that of Kyrgyzstan’s accession to the
Customs Union because the two countries are very different. Armenia
does not have any common border with the Customs Union, while
Kyrgyzstan borders not just with the Customs Union but also with China.
The Armenian president said in early September that the country
wanted to join the Customs Union and participate in the formation of
a Eurasian Economic Union. This was expressed in a joint statement
by the Russian and Armenian presidents, signed by Vladimir Putin and
Serzh Sargsyan after talks in Moscow.
The Eurasian Economic Union should be launched on January 1 2015.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
