Tempo - 1 July 2022

Jokowi, Putin meeting touches on possible Indonesia-EAEU free trade zone
By Fajar Pebrianto

As President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo arrived in Russia on his peacekeeping foreign state visit, the Indonesian President and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow talked about establishing a free trade zone between Indonesia and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Putin, in his official statement issued at kremlin.ru on Thursday, said, “We attach much importance to creating a free trade zone between Indonesia and the Eurasian Economic Union. We hope talks on the corresponding draft agreement will be held before the end of the year and will produce results.”

The EAEU is an economic cooperation group agreed upon on January 1, 2015, involving Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.

Putin also said that he is aware of Indonesia’s interest in developing relations with the EAEU. On the other hand, the discussion on trade relations between Indonesia and the region had already been carried out before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Indonesian Minister of Trade at the time, Enggartiasto Lukita, and a member of the Council of Ministers for Economic Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) of the EAEU, Sergey Glasyev, held a bilateral meeting. The two discussed trade and investment in order to step up Indonesia’s economic cooperation with EEC member countries.