The world community today demonstrates a high interest in cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union. This opinion was expressed by the Director of the Development Department of the Integration of the Eurasian Economic Commission Sergey Shukhno on the sidelines of the annual Forum "Eurasian Week" in Astana.

"A lot of countries and international associations show interest in the Eurasian Economic Union. We are pleased that the external trade of the EAEU countries is growing - this is a very important indicator. In general, more than fifty countries have expressed their desire to cooperate with the Eurasian Economic Union. Currently, we have cooperation in different formats - this is primarily a treaty on a free trade area. The first such agreement came into force and works with Vietnam; it was signed a year ago. And today we already have concrete results on the implementation of this agreement, there is an increase in trade. It is important that this is not only trade with Vietnam, but also access to the markets of ASEAN countries," S. Shukhno said.

According to him, such negotiation processes are currently being concluded with Israel, Serbia, Singapore, Korea and Iran on concluding agreements on free trade zones.

"I would also like to emphasize such a format of international cooperation as work under the Memorandums concluded with third countries. I see a very great interest of the world community in the format of such cooperation. We signed agreements and work with such countries as Chile, Peru and Mongolia. Also, Memorandums with Jordan, Thailand and Cuba are ready for signing. The geography is very wide," S. Shukhno noted.

He stressed that this format also brings an effect and is expressed in cooperation in the economic sphere, particularly in industrial policy, cooperation in the AIC, in the sphere of technical and antimonopoly regulation, and investment cooperation.

Also, a number of agreements on cooperation with major international organizations are being prepared, among them are ASEAN, the African Union and others.

"In addition, we are implementing the idea of ​​the President of Kazakhstan N. Nazarbayev on holding the forum "The European Union - the Eurasian Economic Union ", which he proposed a year ago at a meeting with the Head of the European Commission, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker. We are sure that the preparation and holding of such a forum would help to strengthen and establish our contacts," S. Shukhno noted.