Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko is taking part in the summit of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on 11 December, BelTA informs.
Because of the complicated epidemiological situation, the talks of the leaders of the EAEU countries are held online. If a corresponding agreement had been made, the in-person meeting would have been held in Minsk since Belarus is presiding in the EAEU bodies this year.
Apart from the leaders of the EAEU countries, the summit is attended by Honorary Chairman of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Moldova President Igor Dodon (the country has an observer status in the union). Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Cuba President Miguel Diaz-Canel have been also invited to the summit. These countries are expected to get an observer status in the EAEU at the today's meeting.
The agenda of the summit includes 24 questions. The EAEU leaders will discuss four of them at the narrow-format meeting.
The most important document on the agenda is the strategic guidelines of developing the Eurasian economic integration till 2025. It was discussed at the summit in May. However, back then the EAEU leaders just approved this draft document in general and made a few remarks. It is expected that the finalized document will be adopted at the today's meeting.
“The second important question on the agenda is the improvement of mechanisms of applying common antidumping, compensation and special measures for the protection of the interests of manufacturers in our union. The agenda of the summit includes a number of issues of international cooperation. We need to determine the priorities of the operation of the union in this area in 2021,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said about the agenda of the summit.
In his words, at the meetings the heads of state also need to make a decision on the launch of the EAEU free trade agreement with Serbia and to determine the terms for the beginning of the development of the free trade agreement with Iran. “These are landmark documents confirming the interest in our union in the world. Therefore, we encourage the commission to step up the talks with other states,” the Belarusian leader said.
Apart from that, the head of state deems it necessary to step up efforts to implement Article 41 of the EAEU Treaty, i.e. to start the join promotion of the export of goods and services.