Russian President Vladimir Putin is satisfied with integration in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The Russian head of state suggested Thursday at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council that specific issues of integration cooperation be discussed.
"Cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union is progressing very successfully indeed," Putin said as he opened the closed-door meeting. The Russian leader cited his Kazakhstani counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as saying that "Armenia is the main beneficiary, because Armenia has the highest economic growth rate." Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan clarified that the figure was 12.6% last year and 12.1% in 2023. "This, of course, is such a serious figure, very serious," Putin assessed.
He assured that "Russia highly values close partnership with all member states of the association, which is consistently built on the principles of mutual benefit, respect and consideration of each other's interests."
"Today we will first have a narrow meeting to exchange views on the main areas of our development and the mechanisms we use for this development, and then we will continue our meeting in an enlarged format," said the Russian president. He explained that President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev will take part in the enlarged session via videoconferencing. "He is at a high stage of internal political processes, at an important stage, [he] asked to understand him, since he is not participating personally," Putin said. According to him, Presidents of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan Ilham Aliyev and Emomali Rahmon, who will also participate via video link, have also been invited to the summit.
"We will discuss specific issues of integration cooperation, including in such areas as ensuring energy and food security, technological and financial independence, acceleration of digital transformation, elimination of regulatory and trade barriers, development of transport infrastructure," Putin announced.
The Russian leader said that the meeting of the "five" actually began before the official opening of the summit. According to a TASS correspondent, about an hour passed between the arrival of EEU leaders at the Grand Kremlin Palace and the ceremony of taking a group photo. "We discussed the economic situation in our countries quite actively now, analyzed how our cooperation is going, and we have already been able to dive into the details of some industries," the Russian president said.
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Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS