Excerpts from the transcript:
Alexei Overchuk: Good afternoon, everyone.
Regrettably, my packed business schedule has prevented me from being present in person at the Eurasian Forum of Young Diplomats, which is being held in Altai, one of the most beautiful regions of our country. The Eurasian vector of the multipolar world is probably the most important issue on the Government’s foreign economic agenda, and I am glad to have this opportunity to share our views on this subject with you.
The world has entered a period of transformation: the international trade and economic ties and transport and logistics chains, which have operated for decades, are falling apart; trust in financial institutions and private ownership has been undermined; and we are witnessing the development of a fundamentally new political and economic architecture and a new macroeconomic system.
The processes of de-globalisation and bifurcation of currency and energy markets, the challenges created by the appearance of new technologies and energy transition, as well as climate change are creating objective prerequisites for the development of new macroregions. They will be rooted in the integration associations of states based on economic, technological, cultural and civilisational principles.
The Eurasian Economic Union, which comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, is de facto creating its own macroregion. Amid the ongoing changes, the EAEU has demonstrated economic resilience to global challenges, and EAEU membership is becoming a factor of socioeconomic stability for the member states.
Trade between the union’s members is growing faster than trade with external partners. In 2015-2022, trade between EAEU countries increased by 87 percent, from $44.5 billion to $83.3 billion, while external trade grew only by 59 percent. In 2022, trade between the member states reached its highest level since the union’s establishment, and the share of mutual trade in the EAEU’s foreign trade increased to nearly 18 percent from 13.5 percent in 2015. These figures show convincingly that more comfortable conditions have been created for business in the EAEU than for trade with external partners.
Many crucial sectors, such as construction, agriculture and industry, reported growth and created new jobs last year, which was a major factor of stability on the employment market. In 2022, we reported a record low unemployment rate, only 4 percent. In other words, the EAEU ensures a high level of employment for people in its territory.
Industrial production went up by 16.9 percent from 2015 to 2022, reaching $1.6 trillion, while agriculture grew by 26 percent to $170 billion. Our countries are self-sufficient in vegetable oil, grain, pork and lamb. Experts believe that in 2023 the EAEU will also become self-sufficient in poultry and eggs. Self-sufficiency figures for milk, potatoes, vegetables, beef and sugar are expected to reach at least 95-98 percent. As a result, the EAEU countries are confident about their food security, which is one of the most important global issues today.
The key priorities in the financial sector are the further development of the foreign trade payments and settlements system based on national currencies, which accounted for 89 percent in the first quarter of 2023, and broader use of payments systems. As many as 80 percent of the EAEU countries’ banks have joined the financial messaging system, which is necessary in order to protect settlements between our companies from external influence.
The rapidly changing geo-economic environment has expedited processes aimed at facilitating the technological sovereignty of EAEU countries. Our countries have taken important steps to coordinate the relevant efforts at the Eurasian level. Last year, they agreed to establish a supranational EAEU mechanism to provide financial support for industrial cooperation. We hope that this mechanism will facilitate the development of high-tech industries as early as 2024; these industries will guarantee our technological sovereignty. At the same time, we do not want to isolate ourselves from the outside world; we will strive to expand collaboration in technological spheres with other countries that are interested in this cooperation.
Energy security is a competitive advantage of our Union. We are completely self-sufficient in all key resources, including gas, oil, petroleum derivatives and electricity. We facilitate duty-free intra-EAEU trade in these resources. For EAEU member states, gas prices remain at a level that gives our industry and agriculture a competitive advantage. Our immediate task in this sphere is to complete the creation of common EAEU gas, oil and electricity markets.
At the same time, EAEU countries have excellent opportunities for converting to the use of clean energy. Russia is the world’s leading country in developing and using nuclear power. EAEU member states contain all the elements in the periodic table, including the so-called critical minerals needed for developing and using new energy technologies.
Given the size of our domestic market, further economic growth and improvement in the well-being of our people will depend on how effective we are at promoting our exports. This determines our striving to search for new partners and to develop new markets. In 2022, we began an active shift towards the markets of countries located south of Russia. Consequently, we moved to accelerate the development of the North-South transport and logistic route, aimed at linking the region’s inland territories with rapidly growing Asian and African markets.
The EAEU should become a leader in forging a new multipolar world; this will facilitate its confident long-term development, allowing the Union to fit into a new international economic system. It should also seize the initiative and suggest new models for the economy, education and science as well as in the sphere of interstate and human relations. It should act faster and better than others in this respect. For this purpose, it is necessary to clearly perceive the Union’s future and chart its development strategy in a way that is attractive to other countries. During Russia’s EAEU chairmanship, we are striving to determine the directions of subsequent joint actions and to prepare various talking points on the main elements of strategic mid-term and long-term plans.
EAEU countries have all the prerequisites and resources needed to create a constructively developing region in the context of greater global socio-economic instability and to suggest a positive agenda to the world.
It is therefore no coincidence that, in his address to the leaders of EAEU member states, President of Russia Vladimir Putin noted that we have to turn the EAEU into a powerful, independent and self-sufficient pole of an emerging multipolar world.
In conclusion, I would like to say that, of course, we need to attract as many supporters and allies as possible, especially young diplomats, in order to implement these constructive goals.
It is you who will have to respond to the challenges that the future world poses. It is you who will have to chart the foreign policy of your countries in line with these goals. Although this task is difficult, it is quite feasible in conditions of an unbiased constructive spirit, stemming from the objective national interests of your countries.
I would like to thank the forum’s organisers and to wish a constructive and fruitful dialogue to all the participants.
Thank you.
