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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

I am glad to welcome everybody to the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.

As tradition goes, today we will summarise the results of the outgoing year and review an entire package of new important resolutions prepared for endorsement. These resolutions are designed to deepen cooperation within the EAEU. Certainly, we will discuss topical integration issues.

I believe you all will agree that cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union that has firmly established itself as one of the independent and self-sufficient centres of the emerging multipolar world continues to develop consistently. Our trade and investment exchanges expand, and the cooperation links between EAEU members deepen. These efforts bring real benefits to each of our states, positively affecting the quality of life and the welfare of our populations while also contributing to economic stability and sustainability of these five states and the entire Eurasian region, which is particularly important amidst the turbulence in the global economy.

Our country highly values the mutually beneficial and multifaceted cooperation with our EAEU partners. We are sincerely interested in intensifying efforts to develop the entire scope of our ties. I believe that my colleagues present here today also share this commitment, and I hope that the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council will be productive and bring progress across all issues of mutual interest.

Allow me to pass the floor to President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko who is the current Chair of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. He will preside over today’s meeting and steer our work.

Please.

President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko: Thank you, Mr President.

According to the Charter, Belarus chairs the EAEU this year. This is our second meeting. Earlier, we had a meeting in Minsk, and I also organised and chaired it.

To begin with, I have a question. The members of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, the heads of state, have the agenda at hand. Do you have any additions or changes to the agenda of today’s meeting? None? Then I suggest we proceed according to the agenda that was developed in line with the existing protocol.

Before we agree on our next steps, we usually discuss the issues on the agenda in general. We are not going to change this, are we? Each of us usually presents their position on the agenda. No objections. Then let me say a few words as the Chairman.

President Putin, thank you very much for the excellent organisation of the meeting, as always. We have had no problems with transit and starting our work. I believe that tomorrow we will also successfully hold our broader event involving the CIS.

Today we are summarising the results of the economic cooperation within the EAEU. An informal meeting is also on the programme, as I said, in the CIS format. It will cover a wider range of integration issues and cooperation tracks. I hope that we will fully benefit from this opportunity to have a frank discussion about all the topical issues and that we will make a decision that will ensure a balance of national and shared interests as we consistently advance towards our integration goals.

The issues on the agenda of today’s meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council are exclusively practical. We need to develop approaches to building trade and economic cooperation with third countries for the coming five years. Belarus fully supports the search for new partners from among the states of the global majority, turning to the regions where we are respected and welcome.

An important factor of economic growth in our countries is the intensification of cooperation in tourism. Today we will approve a concept of tourism development. We also need to finalise the EAEU’s 2026 draft budget.

An important issue on the agenda is the chairmanship in the EAEU bodies. In 2026, according to rules, this honorary role passes to the Republic of Kazakhstan. I am confident that Astana’s chairmanship will bring a new powerful boost to the Eurasian economic integration, as it has always been the case.

Apart from the issues that we included in the agenda at the previous meeting in Minsk, we agreed to discuss today the outcomes of the strategic Eurasian economic integration plans until 2025. Board Chairman Bakytzhan Sagintayev will report to us on the prospects of reaching the objectives under the Declaration on the further development of economic processes within the EAEU until 2030 and until 2045. This is the implementation plan that we have instructed our deputy prime ministers to sign.

Colleagues, with all our achievements, there are also some persisting problems. We have said so many positive things today but problems do exist. We are reviewing the fundamental agreements of 2014 enshrined in the EAEU treaty while also postponing the formation of shared energy, pharmaceuticals and medical device markets, as it becomes obvious that our countries are not ready to join an integrated financial market. We are adding new problems to the existing issues with the unhindered transit of goods as part of mutual trade.

The unilateral closure of national markets is done not only by using conventional methods, which we used to see earlier, like prohibiting imports, exports, or licensing but also applying digital tools to this end. Belarus has initiated addressing the issue of digital barriers at least at the level of recommendations. However, there has been little progress in this as well.

The implementation of joint projects and programmes shows procedural flaws although life itself opens up new directions where joint efforts could produce a stronger effect for the economies, populations, and the member states. Suffice it to mention information and communication technologies, artificial intelligence, electric transport, microelectronics, robotic equipment, and new types of materials. At the same time, measures approved by the countries are increasingly taking the shape of reviews, reports, recommendations or even just groundwork.

During the previous meeting, we agreed that the Board Chairman would present reports on the implementation of the strategy in 2020–2025. Instead, we will receive information in the general remarks by the chair of the commission while the five-year report will be given as a secondary issue.

In the past five years, we have spent ten times more time on discussing commission salaries alone. Meanwhile, a number of vital issues that we agreed to handle five years ago remain on paper. The action plan for the implementation of the Declaration until 2030 and 2045 was handled with trepidation and unwillingness to go too deep into the integration.

A logical question arises: are the countries still willing to achieve the goals declared at the time when the EAEU treaty was signed? I want to stress once again that the tasks undertaken in 2014 have been gradually put aside or delayed but they need to be addressed. If we proceed with that, we should resume with as much enthusiasm as in the beginning. Now is exactly the time when countries are creating alliances to act more purposefully and aggressively.

Belarus adheres to the same attitude. Therefore, I call for all the parties to further integration. It is the very purpose of the EAEU.

Thank you for your attention. Let’s reach an agreement. I suppose we can follow the same protocol as in the past. Each participant will speak on today’s agenda and in general on all the issues. Then we can decide whether we will speak at the expanded meeting. If not, Mr Tokayev will, as usual, report on the priorities (if he wishes to), on several sectors, or submit his considerations about the upcoming year in writing since Kazakhstan will be chairing the union. This is how we can proceed.

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