ASEAN and the Eurasian Economic Commission sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Economic Cooperation

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between ASEAN and the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) on Economic Cooperation was signed on 14 November in Singapore, on the sidelines of the 3rd ASEAN-Russia Summit. The MOU was signed by the Secretary-General of ASEAN Dato Lim Jock Hoi and Chairman of the Board of the EEC Tigran Sargsyan, and witnessed by Leaders of ASEAN Member States as well as Russia.
Realising the importance of developing closer economic interaction between ASEAN and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), in March 2017, ASEAN and the EEC started to develop an MOU on economic cooperation. ASEAN and the EEC finalised the MOU on 1 October 2018. The MOU aims to promote economic cooperation and collaboration, contributing to trade, investment and economic expansion between the Member States of ASEAN and the Member States of the EAEU. The MOU comprises of a total of nine articles which lay the groundwork for enhanced economic cooperation and development of new areas of cooperation (i.e. customs procedures and trade facilitation; sanitary and phytosanitary; technical regulations; e-commerce; trade in services and investment, business development primarily for MSMEs; and other areas to be mutually agreed upon by the participants).