Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that integrating the national payment systems of countries that are partnered with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is crucial in order to minimize economic risks.

"A consistent reduction of economic risks for mutual trade created by the use of foreign currencies and payment systems seems to be a relevant task. We assume that partners connecting to the financial messaging system of the Bank of Russia and the development of interworking of national payment systems are essential conditions for stable payment relations inside the Union," Putin said in an address to heads of EAEU member states on Monday, according to the Kremlin.

“We will do everything possible to further deepen integration in all areas – in the political, economic, industrial, financial and technological spheres. In this regard, we consider it expedient to jointly assess the progress of the implementation of the current Strategic Directions for the Development of Eurasian Economic Integration until 2025,” he added.

Coordination between financial markets "should create favorable conditions for making sure that the capital of countries remain inside the integration and is invested in national economies," Putin noted. "Moreover, we consider it reasonable to explore the possibility of establishing a Eurasian rating agency that would provide rating instruments for servicing the growing economic activity on the territory of our macroregion," he further stressed.

The Russian leader stressed that the integrated economic platform has all the bases to become a powerful poll for sovereign states in the new multipolar world.

“The (Eurasian Economic) Union has every opportunity to become one of the powerful, independent, self-sufficient poles of the emerging multipolar world, to be a center of attraction for all independent states that share our values and seek cooperation," he said according to the statement.

Putin also considered that preserving the cultural and social diversity of countries in the Union is the basis for its success.

“For more than a millennium, our peoples have lived together and jointly explored their geographic space. A common understanding of the historical fate, awareness of the centuries-old economic connection, the preservation and strengthening of the cultural and social community of the peoples of the countries of the Union is the key to the success of all our activities.”

The homogenization inside the EAEU "has become a decent response to such global issues, which have intensified due to the pandemic and the illegal sanctions used by a number of countries, as poverty, climate changes, the shortage of resources, including the most important ones, food, water, energy," Russia's head of state added.

The Eurasian Economic Union was created in 2014 by Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan and consists of five countries in the Eurasia region including Kyrgyzstan and Aremania which joined in 2015.

Earlier last week, Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) signed a memorandum on free trade in Tehran.

The Union's commissioner for trade, Andrey Slepnev, said he expected that the free trade agreement between Iran and the economic union would be signed quite soon.

It is noteworthy that Peyman-Pak highlighted during an interview for Mehr in late November 2021 that trade turnover between Iran and the EAEU reached $5 billion in 2021 from $2.3 billion in 2015, an increase of around 55%.

On Sunday, South African Ambassador to Russia Mzuvukile Jeff Maqetuka expressed his country's anticipation of partnering with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and gaining access to its market, eyeing trade in the Chinese yuan.

"We look forward to this partnership [with EAEU] ... First, it is the partnership, market access. We are talking about the yuan market access here," he said.