You're reading: Putin: Eurasian Union, European integration do not exclude each other

Moscow - A Eurasian union, being built by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, keeps its doors open to other countries and is not an alternative to the European choice, said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"The Eurasian Union is an open project. We would welcome other countries’ membership in it, first of all countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. And we are not going to hurry anyone up or push anyone on. It must be a sovereign decision of a sovereign state, motivated by its long-term national interests," Putin said in an article, published by the daily Izvestia on Tuesday.

Putin described the choice between the Eurasian Union and European integration as "false."

"I would like to speak about something of importance here. Some of our neighbors explain their unwillingness to join advanced integration projects in the post-Soviet space by their being allegedly at variance with the European choice. It is a false ‘fork,’ I think," the Russian prime minister said.

"We are not going to fence ourselves off from anyone or oppose anyone. The Eurasian Union will rest on universal integration principles as an integral part of greater Europe sharing the same values of freedom, democracy and market laws," Putin said.

"Back in 2003, Russia and the European Union agreed to form a common economic space and coordinate the rules of economic activity without creating supranational structures. Developing this idea further, we urged Europe to think jointly about: creating a harmonious community of economies from Lisbon to Vladivostok; a free trade zone and even more advanced forms of integration; shaping a coordinated industrial, technological, energy, and education and science policy; and finally, the lifting of visa barriers. These proposals have not remained on paper and they are being intensively discussed by European colleagues," he said.

Membership of the Eurasian Union will only help its members to become integrated with Europe, Putin writes.

"The Customs Union and, subsequently, the Eurasian Union will now become parties in the dialogue with the European Union. So, membership of the Eurasian Union will give each of its members direct economic benefits and help them become integrated with Europe faster and with stronger positions," Putin writes.

Partnership between the Eurasian Union and the EU would have a positive political and economic effect on the entire continent and the world as a whole, he said.

"An economically logical and balanced system of partnership between the Eurasian Union and the EU could create real conditions for changing the geopolitical and economic configuration of the entire continent, and have an unquestionably positive global effect," the Russian prime minister writes.