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Lepekhin: customs union is economic, not imperial project
YEREVAN, October 18. /ARKA/. The Customs Union is an economic, not
imperial project, Vladimir Lepekhin, the director of the Eurasian
Economic Community Institute and a member of the Eurasian Economic
Integration Bureau of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, said Friday in Novosti International Press Center in
Yerevan.
`The Customs Union is not an important geopolitical, much less
imperial project - the aim of this alliance is to optimize trade
turnover among this union member countries,' he was quoted by
Novosti-Armenia.
Lepekhin said that the reason why the Customs Union has stoked a lot
of discourse is that in the West it was perceived as a geopolitical
project putting before former Soviet republics a dilemma to choose
between cooperation with the European Union or the Customs Union.
`Russia has never put the issue this way though it has been accused of
it by western countries... Quite the opposite - Russia has always put
the emphasis on optimization of economic relations saying that this
doesn't close doors to Europe,' he said.
He also stressed that Armenia's membership in the Customs Union will
be in tune with its long-term interests.
In early September, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Russian
counterpart, Vladimir Putin, made a joint statement, according to
which Armenia has decided to join the Customs Union and to take part
in formation of the Eurasian Union in the future.
The announcement came as Armenia was poised to sign the Association
Agreement with the European Union aimed at making European Union's
ties with Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova and Georgia closer. ---0----
17:32 18.10.2013
http://arka.am/en/news/economy/lepekhin_customs_union_is_economic_not_imperial_pr oject/
YEREVAN, October 18. /ARKA/. The Customs Union is an economic, not
imperial project, Vladimir Lepekhin, the director of the Eurasian
Economic Community Institute and a member of the Eurasian Economic
Integration Bureau of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, said Friday in Novosti International Press Center in
Yerevan.
`The Customs Union is not an important geopolitical, much less
imperial project - the aim of this alliance is to optimize trade
turnover among this union member countries,' he was quoted by
Novosti-Armenia.
Lepekhin said that the reason why the Customs Union has stoked a lot
of discourse is that in the West it was perceived as a geopolitical
project putting before former Soviet republics a dilemma to choose
between cooperation with the European Union or the Customs Union.
`Russia has never put the issue this way though it has been accused of
it by western countries... Quite the opposite - Russia has always put
the emphasis on optimization of economic relations saying that this
doesn't close doors to Europe,' he said.
He also stressed that Armenia's membership in the Customs Union will
be in tune with its long-term interests.
In early September, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Russian
counterpart, Vladimir Putin, made a joint statement, according to
which Armenia has decided to join the Customs Union and to take part
in formation of the Eurasian Union in the future.
The announcement came as Armenia was poised to sign the Association
Agreement with the European Union aimed at making European Union's
ties with Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova and Georgia closer. ---0----
17:32 18.10.2013
http://arka.am/en/news/economy/lepekhin_customs_union_is_economic_not_imperial_pr oject/