The Kremlin spoke about the program of the presidential visit to the Council of the EAEU

Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). It will be held on December 9 in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. This is the second such event since the beginning of the year: the previous one was held online on May 27. Assistant to the Russian leader Yuri Ushakov told reporters the details of the upcoming summit.

In addition to the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov, who chairs the EAEU this year, and Putin, the summit will be attended by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, as well as the head of the government of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov and Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz via video link. Both of these countries have observer status. Ushakov did not mention the arrival of a delegation from Tajikistan, with which Kyrgyzstan has an ongoing border conflict.

Putin, according to Ushakov, will hold a separate meeting with Pashinyan on the sidelines of the summit.

The Russian President will speak at an open expanded meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, where he will assess the current stage of integration within the EAEU and outline the key priorities of the Russian chairmanship for 2023. According to Ushakov, preliminary priorities for the Russian delegation include updating the strategic guidelines for the development of the union, strengthening technological sovereignty, widespread introduction of information technologies in various industries, building up investment cooperation, increasing guarantees for protecting the rights of investors in the EAEU space.

It is also planned to supplement the integration agenda with humanitarian issues in the field of scientific, educational and youth exchange. Moscow will offer the EAEU to cooperate more closely with other countries and integration associations.

According to Ushakov, the leaders of the EAEU will discuss the work done in the past year.

Among the topics are the elimination of obstacles in the EAEU internal market, issues of the functioning and development of a single market, promotion of financing of industrial and infrastructure projects, exchange of views on the formation of a common gas market. At the summit, it is planned to create a council of heads of authorized bodies of the participating countries in the energy sector, said the aide to the President of Russia. Finally, the summit will agree on a new procedure for levying indirect taxes on the provision of services in electronic form.

The participants will also adopt the union’s budget for 2023, determine the amount of the fee paid by economic entities when applying to the EAEU court, and include 130 people in the list for awarding a medal for their contribution to the development of the union, Ushakov added.

The Assistant to the President emphasized that by the end of 2022, “in the context of global market volatility and the unfavorable world political situation, the EAEU is taking timely and effective measures to stimulate the main sectors of the economy and support the economic ties that have developed in the space of the union.” “The uninterrupted functioning of the market, the supply of the most necessary goods, including food, have been ensured. All this makes it possible not only to stabilize, but also to improve a number of macroeconomic indicators,” Ushakov said.

In 2021, the GDP of the EAEU countries increased by 4.6%, the volume of foreign trade with third countries – by 35.1% (more than $846 billion), the volume of mutual trade increased by 32.8% to $73 billion, the growth of industrial production amounted to 5 .3%. As for 2022, the presidential aide noted in January-September a reduction in unemployment in the EAEU by 18% and an increase in agricultural production by 5.4%. The cumulative increase in investment in fixed assets reached 6.6% in nine months.

The summit will approve the main areas of activity for 2023, in particular, the decision to launch the negotiation process to conclude a free trade agreement with the UAE. Ushakov noted that ties continue to develop in other areas. “The EAEU now has six international agreements: with Iran, Vietnam, Singapore, Serbia, two agreements with China, negotiations are underway with Egypt and Iran, the launch of negotiations on trade liberalization with India and Indonesia has been approved,” he said.