Russian President: EAEU has potential to become powerful pole of multipolar world
The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) should become a powerful pole of the emerging multipolar world, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an address to the EAEU heads of state published on the Kremlin website on Monday.
“Our close integration has become a worthy answer to such global problems aggravated by the pandemic and illegal sanctions imposed by a number of countries as poverty, climate change and a deficit of resources, including the most important ones – food, water and energy. Obviously, the Union has every opportunity to become one of the powerful, independent, self-sufficient poles of the emerging multipolar world and serve as a center of attraction for all independent states that share our values and seek to cooperate with the EAEU,” Putin said.
“Of course, we will be doing everything we can to promote further deepening of integration in all areas, such as political, economic, industrial, financial and technological spheres. Thus we believe it would be expedient to make a joint assessment of progress in the implementation of the Strategic Areas of the Development of Eurasian Economic Integration before 2025 and to start drafting new long-term planning documents as early as this year to set the main vectors of integration efforts in the periods until 2030 and 2045,” Putin said.
“Development of the technological potential of EAEU member states and achievement of the genuine independence and self-sufficiency in this area should obviously become a key strategic priority of the joint work,” he said.
“We propose that efforts be pooled in the development and implementation of cutting-edge scientific and technical solutions in the leading economic sectors, such as car and chemical industries, transport machine building, microelectronics, aircraft building, ship building, pharmaceutics, digital ecosystems, alternative energy, agricultural machine building, bio technologies and seed production,” Putin said.
“For the purpose of bolstering food security, we propose the joint elaboration of a broad range of measures aimed at further development of the agricultural sector,” he said.
“Our countries have the strongest agro-industrial basis, which not just guarantees the provision of all necessary agricultural products but also allows exporting food in substantial amounts,” Putin said.
Accelerated interaction in digital transformation is also on the agenda, Putin said. “It is important that digital technologies and solutions be introduced in the economies of all EAEU members on the basis of unified principles and approaches. It would be reasonable to formalize them with a separate document of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council,” he said.
The EAEU traditionally holds leading positions in energy, Putin said. “Clearly, we should keep working on the establishment of common energy markets on a systematic and verified basis. Possession of the most advanced technologies of peaceful uses of atomic energy allows us to confidently solve the problem of energy transition,” he said.
Another topical task is the consistent lowering of economic risks to mutual trade created by the use of foreign currencies and payment systems, Putin said.
“Of course, we will also keep working on the formation of new transport and logistic infrastructure that fully meets today’s realities. The development of seamless, safe international transport corridors that connect EAEU member states acquires a special significance nowadays,” he said.
The training of skilled personnel and the creation of new jobs are a key aspect of integration, Putin said.
“I’d like to emphasize the importance of building mutually advantageous, equal cooperation between the Union and foreign partners and international associations. The positive effect of the implementation of free trade agreements with third countries is obvious. We are planning to comprehensively boost the finalization of work on similar agreements with Egypt, Iran and India, as well as to activate new negotiating tracks, including those with Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates,” he said.
“The accomplishment of these extensive missions would require an improvement of our supranational institutions, first and foremost, the Eurasian Economic Commission. In this context, we believe it would be relevant to expand its competences and to discuss proposals on delegating bigger powers to the EEC. At the same time, all key decisions should continue to be made on the basis of consensus. This principle remains a basic value, a common achievement and a competitive edge,” Putin said.
“We are counting on close interaction and support of EAEU members in the achievement of the priorities set by the Russian presidency in 2023. We have no doubt that together we can achieve new weighty results in the development of integration to the benefit of our peoples,” he said.
