Eurasian Economic Union Treaty signed in Astana

The president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and Russian president Vladimir Putin have signed a treaty establishing the Eurasian Economic Union today, on May 29, tengrinews reports from the event.

In the today’s festive ceremony in Astana, the three leaders have established a large free trade economic alliance stretching between Asia and Europe with the shared market of 170 million people.

The idea of creating this trade union was pronounced by the Kazakhstani president Nazarbayev back in 1994. After signing the Treaty today he said: "Here is the Treaty - 1000 pages." 



Nazarbayev pointed out that the signing of the EAEC marks the beginning of a completely new stage of development. Recognizing the disagreements during development of the draft treaty, he acknowledged that the three countries managed to achieve a consensus that met their interests.

“It includes all the fundamental principles inherent to international organizations," he said about the new alliance. 


The Treaty maintains sovereignty of all three signatory states and their territorial integrity and respects their political regimes, Nazarbayev said. The decision making process at all levels of the Eurasian Economic Union will be consensus-based, which means that each of the three countries will have the decisive say in all the matters and will be able to veto anything it doesn’t like.

Speaking about the new common market, Russia’s Putin said that the organization was based of the WTO (World Trade Organization) principles.

“Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are going to facilitate fair competition at the new Union’s market. At the same time we will be ensuring effective protection of consumers and business of the member-countries,” he said.

Speaking about the future of integration in the Union, the Russian president declared that there were plans to advance the alliance towards a common financial market. According to him, removal of barriers to circulation of capital would diversify the risks and improve the quality, availability and reliability of financial services. "Gradual harmonization of our countries’ monetary policies will improve stability of the financial systems of the member-states, make the national currency markets more predictable and better protected from exchange rate fluctuations. This will enhance our sovereignty," Putin concluded.

The president of Belarus Lukashenko also spoke about the long-term prospects of the Union: "We believe that the economic union will become a basis of our political, military and humanitarian unity in future".