BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 21. The expansion of the Eurasian Union's external trade partners continues; this year, free trade agreements with Iran entered into force, new agreements were concluded with the UAE and Mongolia, and a similar document with Indonesia will be signed today, said Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, Trend reports.
He noted that the agreement covers over 90% of the commodity nomenclature and approximately 95% of mutual trade turnover.
Putin emphasized that this opens up strong prospects for deepening multifaceted interaction between the "Five" member states and one of the largest and most dynamically developing economies in Asia and the world. Furthermore, it improves the access of Eurasian Union products to the markets of the Asia-Pacific region.
The President added that a preferential agreement with India - a country with a market of about 1.5 billion people and a GDP of approximately $4 trillion - is currently being drafted. The first round of consultations on the text of the agreement took place a month ago, and during a recent visit to New Delhi, the Indian side expressed readiness to accelerate the document's approval process.