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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues,

Today we are having a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Community Interstate Council at the heads-of-state level. The topics are quite relevant; we will be looking into a range of issues.

First of all, I would like to let our partners in the Eurasian Economic Community know about the agreements we have just adopted within the Customs Union framework and our progress toward a common Eurasian economic space.

We have just signed several documents. A set of decisions has been made at the heads-of-state level. Overall, our Eurasian Economic Community begins its way toward a Eurasian Union, and the degree of integration between several economies – namely, those of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia – is becoming greater.

This is a model that should ultimately spread to all the states of the Eurasian Economic Community. And the declaration that we have just adopted states the following: the corresponding formations – the Common Economic Space and the future Eurasian Union – are open for membership to other states.

I think this is very important, because we are essentially laying down a programme of action for the upcoming years. And this is true economic integration; it is fair, transparent and, I hope, quite advantageous for our peoples.

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Members of the EurAsEC Interstate Council, colleagues, friends,

I wish to sincerely welcome all of you now in this expanded format.

Today’s meeting falls near the ten-year anniversary of the Eurasian Economic Community: October 10 marked ten years since our organisation was created. It is true that this is a young age for such a structure, but we must also admit that we have made a great deal of progress.

We have things to share, and most importantly – as I just said in the restricted format – we are now working on advanced forms of integration, including the Eurasian economic space.

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