President Putin Addresses Integration of Eurasian Space at Belt and Road Leaders Roundtable

PRESS RELEASE

President Putin Addresses Integration of Eurasian Space at Belt and Road Leaders Roundtable

May 15, 2017 (EIRNS)—Speaking at the Leaders Roundtable of 29 heads of state, on the second day of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.

"The tasks formulated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, within the framework of the project, are large-scale, but also difficult in implementation, Putin said,"

TASS reported.

"All that is proposed follows the trend of modern development, and is extremely necessary and highly demanded. That is why Russia not only supports One Belt, One Road project, but will also actively participate in its implementation together with Chinese partners and, of course, with all other interested countries,"

Putin said, as quoted by TASS.

"It is important that all integration structures, both existing in Eurasia and newly formed, are based on universally recognized rules, that they take into account peculiaritaies of the national development models of the participating states, and are open and transparent...."

Speaking of the Eurasian Economic Union, he continued,

"EAEU’s external relations are confidently expanding. Around 50 countries from Europe, Asia, and Latin America are showing interest in cooperation with the Union....

"In general, we are talking about the so-called big Eurasian partnership. It includes establishing multilateral cooperation with the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. That was meant to create a system for simplifying bilateral and multilateral agreements in such spheres as customs, sanitary and phytosanitary control, field cooperation and investments, protection of intellectual property rights,"

Putin said.

Putin spoke of the many challenges involved in creating deep and extensive partnerships, but in the end, there can be one single economic space from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.