Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called serious progress in bringing Tajikistan and Uzbekistan closer to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
"I think we are making quite serious progress here," he said Friday at a press conference following a meeting of the CIS Ministerial Council in Dushanbe.
"Tajikistan has had relations with the EEU for quite a long time, and there is a special representative appointed by Tajikistan to deal with these issues, to look at the obvious benefits that cooperation and especially membership in the EEU brings," he said.
According to the minister, Uzbekistan has been doing the same thing for the past couple of years following a decision by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. "By agreement between [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Uzbek President Shavkat] Mirziyoyev, a bilateral Russian-Uzbekistan working group has been set up that considers practical aspects and is the place to provide advisory services to Tashkent on those issues it would like to clarify in connection with rapprochement with the Eurasian Economic Union," Lavrov added.
The EEU includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, while Moldova, Cuba and Uzbekistan have observer status.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Based on materials from TASS