Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk chaired the first meeting of the Organising Committee in Charge of Preparations and Support for the Russian Federation’s EAEU Presidency throughout 2023. The meeting was held in Moscow.
From 1 January 23, the Russian Federation will take over the rotating presidency of the EAEU governing bodies, including the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the Eurasian Economic Commission Council, for a period of 12 months. On 29 December 2022, the President of the Russian Federation signed an executive order on establishing the Organising Committee in Charge of Preparations and Support for the Russian Federation’s Presidency in bodies of the Eurasian Economic Union throughout 2023. The committee’s members are to prepare and coordinate events held by the Russian presidency.
The Committee includes representatives of specialised state agencies, the Eurasian Economic Commission, business organisations and associations. Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk was appointed the Committee’s Chairman, with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov and Presidential Adviser Anton Kobyakov serving as his deputies. Anton Kobyakov will also act as the Organising Committee’s Executive Secretary.
“In the current environment, cooperation within the EAEU is a high-priority aspect of our foreign policy,” Alexei Overchuk said in his opening remarks. “The possibility of implementing a stable domestic agenda also depends on friendly and partner-like relations with our neighbours. Our perception of specific EAEU priorities is reflected in the address by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to the heads of EAEU member states. This includes technological and financial sovereignty, food and energy security, industrial cooperation and the humanitarian agenda. Purposeful joint efforts in these spheres will help turn the EAEU into a centre of the new multi-polar world.”
The Deputy Prime Minister stressed in addition to implementing integration development plans until 2025 that are charted in the strategic EAEU documents, the Russian presidency will focus also on drawing up new initiatives until 2030 and 2045 together with other EAEU participants.
The programme of events to be held during the Russian presidency calls for reviewing high-priority intra-EAEU interaction and integration issues; this process should involve ministries, agencies and organisations. There are also plans to hold meetings at the level of heads of state and government. A meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council involving EAEU heads of state and a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, which will involve EAEU heads of government, will become key events.
“In all, the programme of the Russian Federation’s presidency of the EAEU stipulates 76 events dealing with various aspects of expanding interstate cooperation within the association’s framework. Events held by Russia’s presidency will promote comprehensive modernisation, cooperation and greater competitiveness of EAEU member states’ economies. The programme also strives to create favourable conditions for sustainable development in the interests of raising living standards in the member states. The harmonisation of the states’ policies, the creation of integrated information systems, investment cooperation and expanded youth exchanges are the key aspects of our presidency’s agenda,” Presidential Adviser and Executive Secretary of the Committee Anton Kobyakov said in his remarks.
The meeting participants reviewed organisational issues and charted key parameters of efforts to prepare and hold events within the framework of Russia’s presidency.
