SOCHI: Asean is set to enter into a Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to enhance trade and form strategic economic partnership for both parties.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the move was another effort to establish regional economic integration and should be exploited for the benefit of member countries.
“It was also adopted as part of the Asean-Russia Comprehensive Plan of Action (2016-2020),” Najib told the Malaysian media at the end of the Asean-Russian Commemorative Summit here yesterday.
He said Asean and EAEU member countries had a combined Gross Domestic Product of USD3.5 trillion and population of 766 million.
Russia is one the EAEU member countries. Other member countries include Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
“It’s a big market with big potential and it should be exploited to enhance trade,” he said.
Najib said Malaysia, during the summit’ plenary session yesterday, had registered its interest to sign the agreement and would go ahead with it if there was a delay by other Asean countries.
He said the summit also agreed to enhance cooperation in the areas of politics, security, social and cultural as well irregular migration.
“We also agreed to work towards reducing development gap and strengthen connectivity to promote tourism activities,” he said, adding that Malaysia had also urged Russia to take advantage of the establishment of the Asean Community by increasing trade with its member countries.
Najib said the summit also reached a consensus to combat violent extremism and tackle human trafficking as well as adopt the principle of moderation as the approach to fight extremism.
He said the summit also touched on the dispute in the South China Sea and agreed that all parties should adhere to the Declaration of Conduct when handling all issues in the South China Sea.
“We also registered our concern on the nuclear and ballistic missile tests carried out by North Korea and urged the country to return to the six-party talks’ negotiation,” he said.
The six-party talks are a series of multilateral negotiations held since 2003 and attended by China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States for the purpose of dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme.
Najib also said the summit also adopted the Sochi Declaration, titled ‘Moving Towards a Strategic Partnership for Mutual Benefit’, which aims to promote peace, stability, prosperity and security in the Asia Pacific.
The summit, which ended yesterday, was held to commemorate 20 years of ASEAN-Russia dialogue relations, serving as a platform for the leaders to chart the future direction of the partnership.