Eurasian Integration Initiative Has Proven Its Effectiveness - Putin

Eurasian Integration Initiative Has Proven Its Effectiveness - Putin

The initiative of the Eurasian integration, supported some 25 years ago by Russia and other former Soviet republics, has proven its effectiveness, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday

NUR-SULTAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2019) The initiative of the Eurasian integration, supported some 25 years ago by Russia and other former Soviet republics, has proven its effectiveness, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

The Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan hosts on Thursday the international conference dubbed "The idea became a reality: Nursultan Nazarbayev's 25th anniversary of the Eurasian initiative." In 1994, during a speech at Moscow State University, Nazarbayev proposed creating a regional trading bloc to confront competition from growing economies of Europe and East Asia. The idea was supported by Russia and other former Soviet republics.

"Over the past quarter century, the countries of the Eurasian region have gone a long way from the idea of uniting equal states proposed by first President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev to a successful economic union," the Russian leader stated in his welcome speech, read out by a senior official, Vladimir Chernov.

Putin stressed that "the Eurasian integration initiative has fully proven its effectiveness."

"The Eurasian Economic Union [EAEU] member states are strengthening trade, economic, investment and humanitarian ties," Putin said, noting the dynamic development of "border and inter-regional cooperation", implementation of "large-scale joint projects" and establishment of "interactions with other multilateral structures on the continent."

The Eurasian integration process was slow in 1990s, but accelerated in 2000s when Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan set up the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) that functioned in 2000-2014. In 2010, the Eurasian Customs Union was established.

Finally, the Treaty on the EAEU was officially signed in 2015. The organization provides for free movement of goods, services, capital and labor, determined by the union's treaty and international agreements. The member states include Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. According to the data from the union's website, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the whole bloc is about $1.9 trillion.