No preconditions for joining EAEU-SCO-ASEAN partnership - Lavrov

MOSCOW, May 31. /TASS/. There are no restrictions for joining the initiative of the broad economic partnership between EAEU, SCO and ASEAN, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday. "We approach the promotion of the initiative of a broad economic partnership with participation of EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union), SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) from more democratic positions, meaning that there are no restrictions for joining this process now," Lavrov said at the international conference "Russia and China: to the new quality of bilateral relations." "We hope that the open nature of our initiative will allow to ensure its effectiveness and, most importantly, its aim at satisfying the interests of all participants," he added. "The US idea of establishing the Trans-Pacific partnership together with the Trans-Atlantic partnership was conceived as a narrow circle of founding countries that set the ‘rules of the game’ while others have to join on the basis of rules set without their participation," the foreign minister noted. Read more