DUSHANBE, April 2, 2010, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are interested in joining the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and it cannot be ruled out that they may join the Customs Union.
According to a mouthpiece of the Council of Federation (Russia’s upper chamber of parliament),
Parlamentskaya Gazeta
(Parliamentary Newspaper), Chairman of the Council of Federation Sergey Mironov remarked this at a roundtable entitled “The Customs Union: Legal Foundation and Ways of Development” in Moscow on March 31.
Mironov expressed confidence noted that the Customs Union would promote integration of the CIS member nations. “The Customs Union’s practically activity will allow raising economic activity of these by 15-17 percent,” Russian speaker said.
We will recall that Russian president Dmitry Medvedev stated on February 12 that Russia is not going to artificially draw Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan into the Single Economic Space (SES). “We have made all decisions on the SES and will fulfill them in the given period. However, it does not mean that we are going to artificially draw Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan into the SES,” Medvedev said following the session on energy problems in Omsk. According to Interfax, he noted that those countries are not ready for that yet.
In the meantime, Suhrob Sharipov, Director of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan, considers that Tajikistan could join the Customs Union. “Tajikistan’s legislation practically fully meets requirements of this Union,” said Sharipov, “However, socioeconomic indices of member nations of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) differ and everything will depend on conditions and efficient implementation of socioeconomic countries in each of these countries.”
The presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan agreed to create the SES by January 1, 2012. Russian President Medvedev, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a package of deals on November 27, 2009 in Minsk to create a customs union with common tariffs, paving the way for a single economic space.
