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The meeting was attended by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov and Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission Board Mikhail Myasnikovich. The talks then continued in an expanded format.

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Beginning of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council restricted attendance meeting

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

We have already begun our work and just now had a lively discussion about the economic situation in our countries and analysed our cooperation, and we have even managed to delve into the details of some concrete production sectors.

But at the beginning of our meeting, I would like to note that the cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union is developing quite successfully. As the President of Kazakhstan just said, the main beneficiary is Armenia because it has the highest rate of economic growth. Mr Pashinyan, how much is it? Seven percent?

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan: No, 12.

Vladimir Putin: 12.5? 12?

Nikol Pashinyan: It was 12.6 percent last year, if I remember correctly, and 12.1 percent this year.

Vladimir Putin: The country’s GDP grew by 12.1 percent. This is a very impressive result.

Naturally, Russia appreciates its close partnership with all member states of the association, which is consistently moving forward based on the principles of mutual advantage, respect and consideration for each other’s interests.

During today’s restricted attendance meeting, we will exchange opinions, or more precisely, will continue to exchange opinions on the main areas of our development and tools that we use for our development. Then we will continue our meeting in the expanded format with the participation of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev via a video link-up (as you know, domestic policy processes are currently at an important stage in his country, and he asked to be forgiven for being unable to be here personally, but he will still participate), as well as invited guests: President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, who will also participate via videoconference.

With the participation of the delegations, we will have an in-depth discussion on concrete issues of integration interaction, including in such areas as ensuring energy and food security, technological and financial independence, speeding up digital transformation, removing the regulatory and trade barriers and the development of transport infrastructure.

Let us get down to work.

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