On November 12, the fifth session of the Joint Commission for the Implementation of the Agreement on Economic and Trade Cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and its Member States was held in Moscow, Russia. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Yan Dong, Vice Minister of Commerce of China, and Mr. Andrey Slepnev, Member of the Board (Minister) for Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

Yan Dong noted that in October this year, the fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the recommendations for formulating China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, which has charted an ambitious blueprint for China’s future development and will continue to provide the world with a stable, reliable, and positive Chinese contribution. He emphasized that leaders of China and EAEU Member States attach great importance to aligning the Belt and Road Initiative with the EAEU integration process, as a clear strategic direction for further elevating China-EAEU economic and trade relations. Both sides positively assessed the progress achieved in implementing the Agreement since the fourth joint commission session and fully affirmed its critical role in safeguarding the stability and resilience of China-EAEU economic and trade cooperation amid mounting global trade challenges. Both sides expressed their shared commitment to steadily advancing implementation of the Agreement, further unlocking its potential, and broadening and deepening economic and trade ties between China and the EAEU and its Member States, with a view to elevating cooperation to a new level.

The meeting reviewed the implementation of the Plan (Roadmap) on Development of China-EAEU Trade and Economic Cooperation between China and EAEU and its Member States and conducted in-depth exchanges of views on a range of issues, including trade remedies, development of cooperation in the area of technical regulations, application of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, customs cooperation and trade facilitation, the multilateral trading system, cooperation in areas of competition and government procurement, as well as sectoral cooperation. Discussions also covered arrangements for future work.

Representatives from the Eurasian Economic Commission and its Member States—Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia—as well as officials from MOFCOM, China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., and the Chinese Embassy in Russia attended the meeting.