Karen Karapetyan at Eurasian Intergovernmental Council Session:  Armenian side is ready to the closest cooperation

ArmInfo. The Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan attended today a regular meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Minsk. The close meeting of EAEU heads of government was followed by a joint photo session, and 

after the heads of government immediately proceeded to the Council's 

enlarged meeting.  Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan delivered a speech 

at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council's enlarged meeting.

As the executive body press office informed, in his speech the 

Prime-Minister said: "We have already considered a number of key 

issues of the integration agenda in a narrow format. Concerning the 

items on the plenary session agenda, I wish to state that Armenia is 

for the adoption of the draft documents agreed for this meeting. 

However, I would like to dwell on some of them.

Karen Karapetyan noted that all the parties equally share the 

approach that the international activity, which goes in line with the 

formation of foreign policy of the EEU, the deepening of the Union's 

economic relations with third countries and key integration 

associations, is above all intended to promote the modernization of 

the national economies of the Member States and enhance their 

competitiveness. Karen Karapetyan also mentioned the importance of 

the consequent cooperation with the specialized divisions of UN, and 

shaping the interaction with EU, Shanghai Cooperation Organization 

and other organizations. 

"We believe that the ongoing talks with China, Israel and Serbia, in 

particular, need to be broadened through the launch of substantive 

consideration of the expediency of negotiations with other countries.  

Taking into account the work on the conclusion of the possible free 

trade zone agreement with the Republic of India, it seems reasonable 

that the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council should also consider the 

question of starting talks over the EEU-India track in December, 2016 

without linking it to the issue of cooperation in the multilateral 

EEU-SCO format,"- Karapetyan stated, noting the importance of signing 

the appropriate agreement with Iran. Karapetyan accentuated the 

opportunities of the work on a construction, providing the 

implementation of the temporary agreement, held simultaneously to the 

negotiations on Preferential Trade Agreement between EAEU and Iran. 

"We believe that the expansion of international and multi-format 

cooperation must be based on real premises and structured so as to 

take into account the actual willingness of third countries to 

establish cooperation with both individual EEU-member States and the 

Eurasian Economic Union, as a whole,"- the Prime Minister stated.

Considering the differences in the regulatory frameworks of member 

States, we fully share the approach that focuses on ensuring the 

legitimacy of the turnover of goods across the EEU customs territory 

through the introduction of a traceability mechanism, Karapetyan paid 

an importance to work proceeding from the belief that it should not 

lead to additional tax and customs encumbrances, higher prices for 

goods and services and, at the same time, would not adversely affect 

the  EAEU member States' investment attractiveness and macroeconomic 

indicators.

"This mechanism needs to be introduced in such a way that its 

activation would not lead in any way to the opposition of one of the 

pillars of our Union - the free movement of goods. Therefore, we are 

ready to actively cooperate with the countries in a bid to work out 

the problems existing in this respect,"- Karapetyan said. 

The enlarged meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council 

discussed and approved a number of documents. In particular, the 

Council approved the unified budget for 2017 and the 2015 budget 

performance of EEU bodies.

The meeting highlighted the need for closer cooperation with third 

countries, as well as deepening of economic and trade relations 

between the Member States. In particular, the speakers emphasized 

that a number of countries have shown interest in cooperation with 

the Eurasian Economic Union in various formats, and appropriate steps 

are being taken to that effect. The meeting participants 

congratulated the prime ministers of Armenia and Kazakhstan for 

assuming the office of head of government and attending the 

proceedings of the Council for the first time.