Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan sign agreement moving closer to customs union
6 October 2007
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Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan moved a step closer to a long-delayed customs and trade union on Saturday.
Vladimir Putin of Russia, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed agreements that will speed up the creation of a three-nation union as part of an effort called the Eurasian Economic Community.
The agreements were signed during days of meetings among leaders of 12 ex-Soviet republics that were dominated largely by Russian priorities. Putin said the customs union ought to be operational in three years.
The grouping, which includes other former Soviet states, aims to restore economic ties lost after the 1991 Soviet collapse. Its long-held integration plans, however, have stalled, in part because of the differences in the size of the countries’ economies and their levels of development.
«The results are almost revolutionary,» Putin told reporters in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe. «We have agreed on forming a customs union and creating a national agency, a commission that will deal with customs regulation.
The economic community would give Moscow another regional organization to use to try to preserve its influence in its former Soviet backyard and to resist what it perceives as U.S. efforts to expand its role in the region. The expansion of NATO and the European Union into former Soviet bloc nations in Europe is also an underlying motivation.
A day earlier, the leaders sought to breathe new life into another organization _ the Commonwealth of Independent States _ which has struggled to be effective despite internal divisions and bureaucratic barriers.
The CIS presidents adopted a plan calling for a «qualitatively new level of interaction» among member nations. But not all members signed the document, reflecting rifts.
Georgia’s president refused to sign, suggesting that CIS membership had done nothing to help it survive punitive trade and travel restrictions imposed by Russia. Turkmenistan, a natural-gas rich Central Asian nation, also declined to sign, while oil-rich Azerbaijan registered reservations.
Also Saturday, another Moscow-driven group comprising six other ex-Soviet republics, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, signed two agreements, including one expressing concern about the situation surrounding Iran and its nuclear program and the situation in Afghanistan.
More notable was an agreement that allows members of the CSTO to buy Russian military equipment at Russian domestic prices, instead of international prices. That would give a boost to Russian arms manufacturers, which are trying to increase exports, as well as to the cash-strapped militaries of some of the ex-Soviet nations.
on October 8th, 2007 at 5:12 am
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on October 10th, 2007 at 7:28 am
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on October 16th, 2007 at 10:22 am
[…] Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan sign agreement moving closer to …Vladimir Putin of Russia, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed agreements that will speed up the creation of a three-nation union as part of an effort called the Eurasian Economic Community. … […]
on October 16th, 2007 at 10:23 am
[…] Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan sign agreement moving closer to …Vladimir Putin of Russia, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed agreements that will speed up the creation of a three-nation union as part of an effort called the Eurasian Economic Community. … Posted in Kazakhstan | Trackback | del.icio.us | Top Of Page […]