EEU and CSTO summits start in St Petersburg

Russian President Vladimir Putin during his working trip to St Petersburg held talks with the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, following which a package of bilateral documents will be signed.

In addition, it is expected that Putin will discuss topical bilateral and international issues with Nazarbayev.

The summits of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) are being held today. At the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council the leaders of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia will sum up the results of the first two years of the union and determine guidelines for further development of the association.

A new draft Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union has been prepared for signing. It is also expected to adopt a number of other important multilateral instruments, including those aimed at the promotion of the formation of the common Eurasian market.

The leaders are expected to approve the main directions of the international activity of the Union for 2017 and to consider various aspects of the cooperation with key trade and economic partners of the Eurasian Economic Union.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will not participate in the EEU and CSTO summits.

The director of the EEU Institute, Vladimir Lepekhin, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that this year was a turning point for Eurasian integration projects. "The world has begun to shift from the globalization in the American way into the globalization in the British way, which is supported by Trump's team. The globalization in the British way is when the whole world is not under the control of an exceptional power, and is divided into several currency areas. In this case these are the North American dollar zone, the European euro zone, the Eurasian ruble zone, the South-East Asia yuan zone and so on. And if before the election of Trump the EU model was called into question, now Russia and other members of the Eurasian space will no longer be interfered while developing their trans-regional alliance," he expects.