Eurasian Economic Union states to cooperate on other platforms - Kazakh Deputy FM

ASTANA, May 26 (Itar-Tass) - A treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union to be sealed on paper in Astana on May 29 does not contain any clauses regulating political, humanitarian or any other kind of cooperation between its member states, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Samat Ordabayev told a news conference on Monday. “Political and humanitarian cooperation with Eurasian Economic Union countries will continue,” Ordabayev said. “But our relations in these fields will develop within other platforms - the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States, the association of former Soviet republics], the OSCE [Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe] and the EurAsEC [Eurasian Economic Community] until it functions.” Ordabayev noted that the original draft treaty had not been confined to trade and economic cooperation. It also contained clauses concerning political cooperation, common citizenship, migration policy, joint protection of state borders and other spheres. “There was an attempt to insert provisions in the treaty regulating all aspects of our states’ lives,” he said, adding that all issues of non-economic cooperation, not reflected in the Eurasian Economic Union treaty, had already been regulated in bilateral agreements. “We have established a large-scale legal framework with Russia in various fields, including more than 500 agreements,” Ordabayev said. “We should not fear there will be legal vacuum.” From January 1, 2015, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will switch to a high level of integration envisaging the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union based on the Customs Union, the common economic space and the potential accumulated by the Eurasian Economic Community. The treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union is expected to be signed by the president of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus - Nursultan Nazarbayev, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko - at the Astana summit on May 29. Learn more on itar-tass.com