Expansion of trade and economic space of EEU, SCO, ASEAN is relevant - Secretary General of SCO

BEIJING, December 3. /TASS/. The expansion of trade and economic space of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which was set as a task by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his state of the nation address on Thursday, is especially relevant. This is the opinion that was expressed by Dmitry Mezentsev, Secretary General of the SCO in an interview with a TASS correspondent. Mezentsev is now in Jakarta (Indonesia) where he had a meeting with Secretary General of the ASEAN Le Luong Minh. "The Russian President has designated one of possible tasks - the expansion of trade and economic space in the format of the EAEC, SCO and ASEAN. This is particularly relevant taking into account the expansion of the organization, real prospects of accession of major Asian countries to the SCO in the near future," Mezentsev said. "The format of the economic partnership, which will claim the experience, economic and trade potential in the SCO can be a really effective and promising," - he added. Mezentsev said that the signing of an intergovernmental agreement on creation of favorable conditions for road transportation at the Dushanbe summit in 2014 was a good example of it. In 2017, new road routes for freighters on the global corridor East China - Western Europe will significantly ease the load on road transport, to provide greater maneuver, and thus fill the regional markets of the "Shanghai family," with a large number of goods, he said. "The Russian President spoke about a possible interaction on the first stage of the creation and elaboration of the format of economic partnership in the field of investments, optimization of flow of goods across borders, and the SCO has made first large-scale steps to achieve this. He stressed the importance of a joint development of technical standards that will determine the new stage of development of next-generation technology products," Mezentsev said. "Right now, the delegation of the SCO Secretariat is in Jakarta, where the headquarters of ASEAN is located. During the meeting with the Secretary General of ASEAN, we discussed measures to intensify work in the framework of a memorandum on cooperation of ASEAN and the SCO. In particular we marked the importance of cooperation in the trade and economic field. We believe that the proposals of the President of Russia, the country which is preparing for the meeting in the Russia-ASEAN format next year, are particularly relevant today," Mezentsev said. Read more