“Uzbekistan sees advantages in joining the EAEU” – Deputy FM of Russia

Tashkent sees the advantages of joining the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), but no official applications for joining the union have yet been received from Uzbekistan or other states, the deputy foreign minister of Russia Alexander Pankin said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

The diplomat recalled that the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev during his address to the country’s parliament at the end of January announced Uzbekistan’s readiness to obtain observer status in the EAEU.

“We presume that this step will be the first on the way to gaining Tashkent’s full membership in the union when it is ready for this,” Pankin said.

“In contacts with us, the Uzbek partners confirm that connecting Uzbekistan to the EAEU would have a number of undeniable advantages: access to a single market for goods, labor, services and capital, as well as to the technological, transit-transport and investment potential of this association. Probably, partners also calculate the possible costs,” the deputy minister said.

Commenting on the possible emergence of new members in the EAEU, he said that no official applications for membership have been received.

“The EAEU member states have repeatedly confirmed their readiness for mutually beneficial cooperation with all interested partners in various formats,” Pankin said.

He also emphasized that the circle of countries with which the EAEU has concluded free trade agreements (Vietnam, Singapore, Serbia, Iran) or agreements on trade-economic cooperation (PRC) is constantly expanding.