Dmitriy Medvedev, Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have given their consents today for the first stage in creating a Euro-Asian economic union, the project of Russian PM Vladimir Putin, arguing for as stronger integration of former USSR countries as possible.

Russian president Dmitriy Medvedev and his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukaschenko together with Kazakh’s Nursultan Nazarbayev have signed in Moscow the Declaration on a Euro-Asian Economic Integration”.

Medvedev remarked that the declaration anticipates the creating of executive commissions for overseeing tougher economic integrations of the three states and the goals of creating a complete “Euro-Asian economic union” in the future.

“We’ve made a very important step in making a Euro-Asian economic union. This will undoubtedly be decisive for the future of our countries”, remarks Mededev during a ceremony attended by Russian PM Vladimir Putin and broadcast live by state television.

The document speaks of moving on to the next stage of the integration process, a single economic space based on the rules and principles of the World Trade Organization, that will be open for other states too.

Putin spoke for the first time about creating an Euro-Asian union  with former Soviet Republics in October in an article published in the paper “Izvestiya” soon after announcing his candidacy for the Presidential elections of 2012.

The three Soviet republics have already formed a Customs union, but the establishment of a Euro-Asian union, that would have its own management for controlling a singular economic space, would be the first integration of its kind in the region since the crumbling of the USSR 20 years ago.

This single economic space is supposed to be introduced as of January 1, 2012.

Beta