🎙 President of Russia Vladimir Putin's remarks at the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meetings (restricted and expanded-formats)

Key points:

• We are expected to approve a declaration, drafted on the Russian side’s initiative, on the further development of economic processes within our association for the period to 2030 and further to 2045.

🇮🇷 In the run-up to our meeting, a free trade agreement between the EAEU and Iran was signed. Once the agreement comes into force, practically all categories of goods produced in the Union will obtain duty-free access to the extensive Iranian market with 90 million consumers, and non-tariff barriers will be significantly reduced.

📈 The Eurasian Union will soon be 10 years old. Over this period, the scale of trade has almost doubled and the aggregate GDP of the EAEU countries has grown from $1.6 trillion to $2.5 trillion US dollars.

• In Russia, GDP added three percent in the first three quarters and we expect it to reach 3.5 percent for the annual results. Other EAEU countries have also recorded a substantial increase in GDP.

🇪🇬🇦🇪🇮🇩 Work on a draft free trade agreement with Egypt is at a very advanced stage. Apart from that, the Eurasian Commission is negotiating with the UAE and Indonesia.

• Overall, as the EAEU’s authority and economic weight grows, an increasing number of countries and international organisations are showing interest in establishing mutually beneficial contacts with the EAEU.

🇨🇳 The work on aligning integration processes within the EAEU and China's Belt and Road Initiative is also yielding real results.