Customs Union open to Armenia, other CIS countries - Naryshkin
YEREVAN. July 24 (Interfax) - With the political will, Armenia can become a member of the Customs Union, Russian Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said at a meeting with scientists at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.
"The Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia is open to the CIS countries and will be expanding with the political will, and as, and when, other countries are ready. One such country could be Armenia which already has a status of a EurAsEC (Eurasian Economic Community) observer," Naryshkin said.
The first practical step is to ratify the CIS Free Trade Area agreement, he said. "This agreement takes into account the emergence of Armenia's new foreign trade partner, the Customs Union," the Duma speaker said.
As the Common Economic Space continues to develop, the Eurasian economic Commission will be regulating workforce migration conditions and influencing the investment policy and other processes, he said.
"We know what attention scientists and politicians in Armenia are paying to its possible involvement in the Eurasian economic integration processes," Naryshkin said.
The Troika's first supra-national body, the Eurasian Economic Commission, was launched in 2012, he recalled. A working group was set up (at Naryshkin's proposal) on the parliamentary dimension of the Eurasian economic integration. "Thus the world is seeing the formation of a new competitive regional union that meets the demands of the global market," the Duma speaker said.
