Engage in dialogue: Putin named a topic for the third round of talks with Kiev

The pace of economic growth in the EAEU is higher than the global average, Vladimir Putin said, summing up the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Minsk. At the summit, the Russian leader held talks with the head of Uzbekistan and the Crown Prince of the UAE. The meeting of the heads of the Eurasian Union resulted in the signing of two important international documents — the agreement on economic partnership with the Emirates and the interim trade agreement with Mongolia. At the final press conference, Vladimir Putin also touched upon the Ukrainian conflict. He said that the third round of negotiations is being prepared and may take place after the end of the prisoner exchanges and the transfer of the bodies of the dead soldiers. It is assumed that the subject of a new meeting with the delegation from Kiev will be the discussion of the memoranda of the two countries.

Putin summed up the results of his participation in the SEEC meeting

On June 27, the official residence of the President of Belarus hosted the first meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council (SEECC) this year. Minsk is chairing the association this year.

The heads of the EAEU member states began arriving at the Independence Palace around 11 a.m. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko personally welcomed Chairman of the EEC Board Bakytzhan Sagintayev, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and Head of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov in the lobby.

Russian Leader Vladimir Putin received a particularly warm welcome. They shook hands with Alexander Lukashenko, then hugged and exchanged a few words. The Russian delegation also included Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov and Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk.

This time, the meeting was held without the personal participation of the President of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan joined the meeting via video link. In a conversation with journalists, Alexey Overchuk reiterated that Yerevan cannot simultaneously participate in the EAEU and the EU, thus commenting on the law adopted by the republic, which declares its desire to join the European Union.

The EAEU leaders had to discuss the implementation of strategic directions for the development of integration until 2025, as well as outline further guidelines. Among the key topics are labeling of goods, liberalization of the single market of services, and expansion of Eurasian transport corridors.

— The main integral indicator of the efficiency of economies is the growth rate of the economy. In our EurAsEC, it is higher than the global average," Vladimir Putin summed up the meeting.

The President recalled that the global economy is growing by 3.3%. For comparison, the EAEU has 4.6%.

— This is, among other things, not least the result of our joint work, since its purpose is to remove trade and other economic barriers to joint work. This, without any exaggeration, multiplies the opportunities for economic growth," he said.

The President noted that issues related to the removal of barriers in the service sector were also discussed in a narrow circle. In addition, it was about an electronic signature. According to the head of the Russian Federation, its introduction at the interstate level will create good conditions for expanding cooperation.

Following the meeting of the Supreme Council at the level of the heads of the five, an expanded meeting was held, which was also attended by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Uzbek leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev, First Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia Nyam-Osoryn Uchral and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Khalid bin Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The leader of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, joined via video link.

Cuba and Uzbekistan have observer status at the EAEU since 2020. Mongolia and the UAE are interested in cooperating with the association. Following the meeting, an economic partnership agreement with the EAEU was signed with the UAE, and the union countries concluded an interim trade agreement with Mongolia. According to Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Economic Development of Russia, they will allow Russian businesses to save about 20 billion rubles annually on duties.

The EAEU is actively strengthening its subjectivity in the international arena, emphasizes Alexander Korolev, political scientist, Candidate of Political Sciences, Deputy Director of the Central Research Institute of Higher School of Economics.

— This is evidenced, for example, by the number of negotiating tracks for the signing of agreements on the creation of free trade zones (FTZs), in which the Eurasian Economic Union is currently participating. A free trade zone with Indonesia is expected to be signed by the end of this year. There is progress in entering into negotiations on a free trade area with India. At the end of last year, Iran became an observer state at the EAEU. Plus, the FTA agreement with Iran came into force this year. The EAEU is really quite active in this circuit and is strengthening its international positions," he told Izvestia.

At the same time, the EAEU continues its internal integration, said Dmitry Sidorov, Head of the Department of Foreign Regional Studies at MGLU, Candidate of Political Sciences.

— The Union needs to complete the work on the formation of a common market, including oil and gas, as well as remove obstacles in the domestic market. In 2018, a Declaration on the further development of integration processes within the EAEU was approved, which defined strategic areas of cooperation for the period up to 2025. We expect the adoption of a new similar document," he said in an interview with Izvestia.

Putin's meetings in Minsk

At the summit in Minsk, the Russian President had a brief conversation with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Vladimir Putin held two bilateral meetings — with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Khalid bin Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan and with the leader of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The Russian leader discussed current affairs and prospects for the near future with the head of this republic.

"We've been checking watches on possible major joint investment projects," the Russian head of state said. — We are talking about energy, including, possibly, nuclear energy, infrastructure projects, and the metallurgical industry.

In a conversation with the Crown Prince of the Emirates, the head of the Russian Federation expressed hope to see the President of the United Arab Emirates, Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, at the Russia—Arab League summit in August and October. Relations between the Russian Federation and the UAE are on the rise — the two countries have many common tasks in the international arena, orientalist Leonid Tsukanov told Izvestia.

"First of all, they are related to ensuring the stability of the Middle East in the context of the settlement of the Palestinian—Israeli and Iranian-Israeli conflicts, the development of peaceful nuclear energy in the Middle East, technological, oil and gas and agricultural cooperation," he said. — Moscow and Abu Dhabi generally assess the dynamics of relations in the region equally and strive to play the role of active moderators. From the UAE's point of view, Abu Dhabi's participation in humanitarian contacts between Russia and Ukraine and facilitating the exchange of prisoners is also important.

On the other hand, there are a number of obstacles in the dialogue between Moscow and Abu Dhabi. The main thing is the strategic proximity of the UAE and the USA. Abu Dhabi remains one of Washington's key regional partners and has to take its interests into account when building foreign policy contacts, especially in sensitive sectors. This pushes the UAE to constantly balance between Moscow and Washington.

The UAE is also dissatisfied with the deepening cooperation between Russia and Iran, which some of the Arabian elites interpret as a challenge. There is also a risk that sanctions may be imposed against the Emirates for overly active economic cooperation with Moscow and attempts to turn into a "safe haven" for Russian companies in the Middle East.

However, these challenges, as a rule, do not have a significant impact on the overall picture of bilateral relations between Moscow and Abu Dhabi, Leonid Tsukanov believes.

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine

The meeting of the EAEU leaders took place simultaneously with the EU summit held in Brussels on June 26-27. One of his central themes was the buildup of military spending. Western countries have agreed to increase them to 5% by 2025. Vladimir Putin noted that Russia spends 13.5 trillion rubles on defense, which corresponds to 6.3% of GDP. And I noticed that the costs are quite high, especially since the Russian Federation invests in its defense industry, while Europe invests in the American one. The Head of State stressed that the cost of arming Russia is calculated for the speedy and successful completion of its military operations.

At the same time, Vladimir Putin recalled the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis, noting that Russia was "thrown" with the non-expansion of NATO to the east. Moscow has repeatedly indicated that it considers the admission of post-Soviet countries to the bloc as a security threat. In addition, the West turned a blind eye to the failure to implement the Minsk agreements concluded in 2015.

— We all know what happened in Donbass.: For eight years there has been a bloody war against the civilian population, and for eight years we have been trying to reach an agreement to resolve this issue peacefully. We were deceived, and we publicly admitted it again - both the former German chancellor and the former French president publicly said that they were not going to implement the Minsk agreements, but signed all this only to pump weapons into the Ukrainian regime, and waged this undeclared war for eight years," the Russian president noted.

Speaking about the peaceful settlement in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin noted that Moscow is ready for the third round of negotiations with Kiev.

— We need to coordinate the place and time. I hope that the President of the Republic of Turkey, Mr. Erdogan, remains in his position to support this process. We are very grateful to him for this. We are ready to hold such a meeting in Istanbul," he said.

Russia is also ready to give another 3,000 bodies of dead soldiers in addition to 6,000, but it's up to the Ukrainian side to accept them. On June 26, Moscow and Kiev conducted a new stage of prisoner exchange. Neither the Russian nor the Ukrainian side disclosed the number of those returned. The Kremlin previously reported that after the exchanges are completed, the date of the third meeting will be agreed. Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange prisoners of war, including those seriously wounded and under the age of 25, at the last talks in Istanbul on June 2.

Vladimir Putin said that the subject of the third round of negotiations with Kiev will be the discussion of memoranda of the two countries. The President added that the heads of the negotiating groups are in constant contact and are calling each other.

"I would not like to elaborate, I consider it harmful to pre—empt the results of the negotiations," Vladimir Putin said.

The possibility of a meeting between Putin and Trump

The Russian leader also spoke about a possible meeting with the US president. Vladimir Putin first of all stressed that he treats Donald Trump with great respect, as he had gone through a "difficult, difficult and unsafe" path to return to the White House, recalling that Trump had survived more than one assassination attempt.

Moscow also appreciates his efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis and believes that the American president is sincerely striving for this.

— I am always open to contacts and meetings. I know that Mr. Trump also talked about the possibility of a meeting. I, like him, believe that such meetings should be prepared, and based on the results, we should reach some new frontiers of cooperation," Vladimir Putin said. — In general, a meeting is quite possible, and we will be happy to prepare it.

The President stressed that it is under Trump that relations between Russia and the United States are beginning to level out, and although not everything has been decided yet in terms of improving diplomatic ties, the parties are moving in the right direction. In particular, he mentioned that the departments of the two countries are in contact and about the signals of American business to return to the Russian market.