What is the Eurasian Economic Union?

The Eurasian Economic Union is an internationally recognised union of culturally and economically aligned countries made up of former Soviet republics located in North and Central Asia as well as in Eastern Europe. 

The Eurasian Economic Union member countries represent over 15% of the surface land area on Earth at over 20 million square kilometers and have a combined GDP in excess of $1.738trn, according to its website. 

An economic union is a bloc of countries that has agreed to reduce or eliminate barriers to trade and the movement of goods and people. Member countries typically align their external trade policies and encourage cross-investment between member states. 

The main objective of an economic union is to promote efficiencies among member states while increasing financial influence on the world stage through cooperation and integration. 

What does the EAEU stand for? 

The EAEU aims to facilitate economic integration among member states and countries with which it has formal trade agreements. 

The union aspires to raise the competitiveness of the member countries in the global economy in order to facilitate stable development and raise the living standards of the citizens within the union. 

The EAEU was created as an Eurasian counterpart to the economic dominance of the US and the EU, and the increased bargaining power when negotiating trade agreements with other major powers such as China.  

History of the EAEU 

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, former member republics were faced with widespread poverty and industrial ruin. 

While delivering a speech at Moscow University in 1994, the then-president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, highlighted the potential benefits of an economic union between Eurasian countries. He believed that economic cooperation between former USSR states would provide the best opportunity to counter the increasing strength and competition from the EU. 

While the idea of a unified trading bloc garnered immediate support from potential Eurasian Economic Union members, the social and political impact of the dissolution of the USSR meant that the processes required to create the union progressed at a slow pace. 

Over the next two decades a series of treaties and trade agreements laid the groundwork for the official creation of the EAEU on 29 May 2014 when the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was officially ratified. 

The agreement between the founding members of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan came into effect on 1 January 2015. The following day, on 2 January, Armenia became an official member with Kyrgyzstan officially joining on 6 August of the same year. 

Geopolitical sanctions enacted by a large majority of the global economy in 2022 could undermine the future competitiveness of the union, but as at the time of writing, this has not become clear.