By empty (6/11/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus will sign in September a concept of a single economic territory of the four nations, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told reporters on Tuesday. He said a high-level group was working on the draft concept that is likely to be completed this month. The creation of a common economic territory does not substitute the current integration associations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Euro-Asian Economic Community, Nazarbayev said.
The presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus will sign in September a concept of a single economic territory of the four nations, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told reporters on Tuesday. He said a high-level group was working on the draft concept that is likely to be completed this month. The creation of a common economic territory does not substitute the current integration associations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Euro-Asian Economic Community, Nazarbayev said. If the economic territory is set up, with a supra-state organ to handle tariffs, cargo shipments between the member states will increase. \"All states and ordinary people will benefit from that,\" Nazarbayev said. He added that 90 percent of the former Soviet Union\'s economic potential is concentrated in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus. \"I believe that the European community will reckon with such association, which is our ultimate goal,\" he said. (ITAR-TASS)