Moscow, December 23 (Interfax) - The presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are expected to partially approve on Tuesday a draft treaty to set up an association to be called Eurasian Economic Union which is due to come into being on January 1, 2015, a senior Kremlin aide said on Monday.
“Consideration will be given to the results of the work of experts on the first part of that document, which deals with institutional matters,” Yury Ushakov told a briefing in Moscow in reference to a planned meeting in Moscow of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, the governing body of the Customs Union and Common Economic Space of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, that would bring together the three countries’ leaders – Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are also members of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC).
Ushakov said the three presidents were planning to approve that part of the draft accord, which would formulate the Eurasian Economic Union’s objectives, mechanisms and principles.
“Simultaneously, the so-called functional part of the treaty is going through its process of approval. It will be more complicated for experts to work on, it will contain specific commitments and deal with the free movement of goods,” the aide said.
He said the three presidents have set themselves the goal of signing the treaty no later than May 2014. The deal would then need parliamentary ratification.
The presidents of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan and the prime minister of Ukraine have been invited to Tuesday’s summit, Ushakov said.
He said Putin, Lukashenko and Nazarbayev would first have a separate meeting and then be joined by the Armenian, Kyrgyz and Ukrainian leaders.
After that, Putin, Lukashenko and Nazarbayev would issue a statement for the media and have an informal pre-New Year’s supper.
