ROBERT KOCHARIAN DESCRIBES EURASEC NON-OFFICIAL SUMMIT AS CONSTRUCTIVE, EFFECTIVE AND INTERESTING

Armenpress
Aug 16 2006

SOCHI, AUGUST 16, ARMENPRESS: The leaders of the Eurasian Economic
Community (EurAsEC) countries met today at the Sochi’s "Rus" health
complex as part of the non-official summit of the members of the
EurAsEC to discuss issues on creation of legal basis for the formation
of customs union within the establishment and issues on the development
of the organization.

At a press conference which followed after the meeting Vladimir
Putin said they have discussed a wide-range of issues which are
very important for the organization and underscored the necessity of
creation of general economic system.

For the creation of the customs union the leaders signed a document
instructing EurAsEC Secretariat as well as Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan undertake necessary steps for the creation of legal basis
for the formation of the union. The Russian president said that the
most important achievement at the summit was that all the countries
supported the idea of creation of general energy market. A great
attention was also paid to the cooperation of EurAsEC countries in
the sphere of nuclear energy.

The participants of the summit also discussed issues on deepening
cooperation of the EurAsEC and CSTO. As a positive example of the
cooperation, Armenia’s membership to CSTO and its status of observer in
the EurAsEC was noted. Vladimir Putin thanked his Armenian counterpart
for participating in the summit and said that the cooperation of
the two organizations has serious prospect as "it is impossible to
develop the economy and deepen cooperation without ensuring security."

During the summit a document was signed according to which Uzbekistan
has become a full member of the CSTO.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian described the summit as
constructive, effective and interesting suggesting that non-official
meetings be organized more often and wider range of issues be discussed
during them – starting from issues on cultural cooperation to economic
one. The summit will continue tomorrow.