Agreement on Armenia's accession to Customs Union to be ready by May 2014 - PM
YEREVAN. Dec 27 (Interfax) - An agreement on Armenia's accession to the Belarusian-Kazakh-Russian Customs Union will be ready by May 2014, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said.
"The roadmap presumes that we should have a ready agreement on Armenia's accession to the Customs Union in May next year," Sargsyan said at a press conference on Friday.
Twenty-two task forces in Armenia have been instructed to draw up the agreement, he said.
"If we come to an agreement with our partners on all outstanding issues in this period of time, this means that the agreement will be submitted for ratification of the four parliaments in June," Sargsyan said.
At the same time, Sargsyan noted that Armenia's accession to the Customs Union does not close the door to its cooperation with the European Union.
"This doesn't mean the end of the agreements concerning free and comprehensive trade. We will continue our work, and both avenues will be mutually complementing. We are happy that our European partners agree with us, and we are working with them to continue cooperation. Our Russian partners also positively treat this position of Armenia and help us in this. Our Russian partners also prefer Armenia to diversify its foreign policy. We will continue to work with the EU," he said.