You're reading: Russian Duma Speaker: Customs Union open to Armenia, other CIS countries

YEREVAN - With the political will, Armenia can become a member of the Customs Union, Russian Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said at a meeting with scientists at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.

“The Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia is open to the
CIS countries and will be expanding with the political will, and as, and
when, other countries are ready. One such country could be Armenia
which already has a status of a EurAsEC (Eurasian Economic Community)
observer,” Naryshkin said.

The first practical step is to ratify the CIS Free Trade Area
agreement, he said. “This agreement takes into account the emergence of
Armenia’s new foreign trade partner, the Customs Union,” the Duma
speaker said.

As the Common Economic Space continues to develop, the Eurasian
economic Commission will be regulating workforce migration conditions
and influencing the investment policy and other processes, he said.

“We know what attention scientists and politicians in Armenia are
paying to its possible involvement in the Eurasian economic integration
processes,” Naryshkin said.

The Troika’s first supra-national body, the Eurasian Economic
Commission, was launched in 2012, he recalled. A working group was set
up (at Naryshkin’s proposal) on the parliamentary dimension of the
Eurasian economic integration. “Thus the world is seeing the formation
of a new competitive regional union that meets the demands of the global
market,” the Duma speaker said.