Eurasian Economic Union agrees to form free-trade zone with Iran

Armenia's Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, Belarus' Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov, Kyrgyzstan's Prime Minister Sooronbay Jeenbekov, Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and Eurasian Economic Commission Board Chairman Tigran Sargsyan (L-R) pose for a group photograph ahead of a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Bishkek on March 7, 2017. (Photo by Russian Government Press Office/TASS)

The prime ministers of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) have signed a directive ordering preparations for a temporary agreement on forming a free-trade zone with Iran.

The Eurasian Intergovernmental Council members held a meeting in the Kazakh capital of Bishkek on Tuesday with the presence of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.

In the Bishkek meeting, the prime ministers also discussed issues pertaining to the development of cooperation among EAEU members and making use of their capabilities to promote the union’s interaction with other countries.

Among other orders issued in Kyrgyzstan, the council attendees signed instructions to pave the way for the implementation of the integration community's digital agenda by 2025.

The EAEU is an international organization for regional economic integration. It has international legal personality and is established by the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union.

The EAEU provides for the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor, pursues coordinated, harmonized and single policy in the sectors determined by the Treaty and international agreements within the Union.

Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Russian Federation are the current member states of the union.

The union has been created to comprehensively upgrade, raise the competitiveness of and cooperation between the national economies, and to promote stable development in order to raise the living standards of the nations of the member states.