Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that forming a customs union was Russia's priority in the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEc) space in the next few years.
"Integration processes in the Eurasian Economic Community (Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) will get a powerful impetus if a customs union is created," Lavrov told the Vremya Novostei daily in an interview which is to be published on Wednesday, December 26.
" Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are the pioneers and leaders of this process. But other EurAsEc members can also join in. This is one of our priorities in short-term perspective. We have laid down a legal framework in the outgoing year. It will have to be strengthened. But it has already been created. This is one of the main results in the outgoing year," Lavrov went on to say.
Asked to comment on the CIS problems, Lavrov pointed out common interests in economy, transport infrastructure and electric energy. "There are common problems in the migration sphere, and they are being solved collectively," the Russian foreign minister stressed.
"In the humanitarian sphere, we are simply obliged to step over politicised issues and to do everything to realize the interests of the citizens of all our countries to communication in science, culture and, in the long run, sport," Lavrov said. ( Itar-Tass )