EAEU member states are celebrating Eurasian Economic Union Day on 29 May for the first time ever. It was on this day in 2014 that the EAEU Treaty was signed in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
“In the 9 years since its founding, the Eurasian Economic Union has grown into a vital platform for cooperation and interaction between the states of Greater Eurasia and one capable of making important strategic decisions. And the Union’s current goals are ambitious: to establish a single customs space, to stimulate investment activity in the nations of the EAEU, to create a settlement system more performant than SWIFT, and to develop the right environment for an autonomous digital currency. I am confident that in the coming years the members of the EAEU will succeed in maintaining and even increasing the Union’s high functionality, the result of a respectful attitude towards the economic interests of the countries of the Union and the states of the entire Eurasian space,” Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Mikhail Myasnikovich said.
The idea of a Eurasian Economic Union Day was first suggested by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov at the 2022 meeting of the Eurasian Economic Council and met with unanimous support from the heads of the five member states – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. As noted in the decree of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, the day’s establishment will increase solidarity and deepen cooperation between the Union’s members. EAEU Day will be celebrated annually in accordance with Japarov’s original proposal.
Russia holds the 2023 presidency of the Eurasian Economic Union. Speaking at an expanded meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Bishkek on 9 December 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that updating the strategic guidelines for EAEU development was a priority of Russia’s Union presidency. Vladimir Putin also noted the importance of preparing new strategic planning documents to identify areas for further medium and long-term cooperation on integration.
