Lukashenko calls on EAEU to systematize partner relations with third countries, to pay special attention to Africa

MINSK. May 8 (Interfax) - It is important to systematize the process of establishing partner relations between the EAEU and third countries, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said when speaking at a session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Moscow on Wednesday.

"The work to establish partner relations with third countries, in our view, needs to be systematized," Lukashenko said.

In current geo-economic conditions, it should be clearly determined with what countries in what sequence and within what kind of timeframe a free trade zone will be formed, and with what potential partners there may only be interaction within the framework of appropriate memorandums, he said.

He went on to recall the signing of a full-scale trade agreement with Iran. The process of strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation in the format of the Five with much-promising and friendly Asian nations - Indonesia, UAE and Mongolia - is also underway, he said.

The Belarusian president also noted that the EAEU has by now paid little attention to dialogue at the union's level with the African Continent.

"Africa needs a broad list of our products, works, services and technologies. Africa, as well as Latin America, is fed up with colonialism from certain leading nations. And this is the point when we should come to Africa," Lukashenko said.

Parallel participation by EAEU countries and their partners within the CIS in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS also opens up huge benefits, he said.

"But we should never forget our closest neighbors, our friends, our brothers. Interaction with countries with observer status at the EAEU and with the CIS countries should be in the sphere of constant and close attention," Lukashenko said.