No plans to review EAEU migration policy - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW. Aug 20 (Interfax) - There are no plans to review the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)'s migration policy, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said.

"No, there will be no review or any turn here," Pankin said in an interview with the International Affairs magazine in response to a question as to whether respective EAEU documents might be reviewed in the context of an aggravated migration problem in Russia.

Labor migrants from EAEU member states qualify for liberalized rules of stay and work and have the same employment opportunities and social security as citizens of the host country, he said.

"This means that any migrant will not feel any difference throughout the territory of the five states. The notion of security is a different question, and each state has its own ideas about ensuring national security from either external or internal factors. Stricter control over the travel of labor migrants is absolutely not at odds with our obligations and national legislations," Pankin said.

Answering a question about EAEU-China interaction, he said, "China's presence in this area is obviously enhancing and growing, but that is not happening against the interests of these states and our union."

The EAEU and China have an agreement on trade and economic cooperation and a joint commission, which addresses sectoral cooperation and ideas for new projects.

"The EAEU development plans are being aligned with China's One Belt One Road initiative. This is a mutually beneficial alignment. Clearly, this is not about dominance or invasion or imposition of Chinese flows. This is not a Chinese flow. These are well considered things balanced by interests on both sides," Pankin said.

Moscow is not concerned about this trend, which cannot be called China's expansion: "this is the broadening of China's capacities on external markets to the extent of the states' interests," he said.