Through the signing of international agreements on trade, economic cooperation and integration, countries can achieve an increase in the efficiency of their economies, which suffered due to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

When the USSR began to fall in 1991, the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia[journal 2] of the founding republics signed the Belavezha Accords on 8 December 1991, declaring that the Soviet Union would cease to exist and proclaimed the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place.

[27] On 29 March 1994, during a speech at Moscow State University, the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev complained that the CIS was inadequate and did not provide the integration that the countries badly needed.

[30] He suggested the idea of creating a Union as a regional trade bloc in order to connect to and profit from the growing economies of Europe and East Asia.

[31][32][33] The idea was quickly seen as a way to bolster trade, boost investment in Central Asia, Armenia and Belarus, and serve as a complement to the Eastern Partnership.

[32][34] During the 1990s, the Eurasian integration process was slow, possibly due to the economic crisis experienced after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the size of the countries involved (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan cover an area of about 20 million km2).

Russian president Vladimir Putin stated, "Today we have created a powerful, attractive centre of economic development, a big regional market that unites more than 170 million people.

[72] By February 2023, Uzbek prime minister Aripov announced the completion of the preparatory work to ensure harmonization of national technical regulations with the EAEU standards.

[110] Viktor Yanukovych's decision to abandon an association agreement with the European Union and exclusively pursue integration with the EAEU was a key factor in the Euromaidan protests that ended his term as president of Ukraine followed by annexation of Crimea by Russia.

Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma's CIS committee, backed Medvedev's proposal to start discussions on the creation of a monetary union.

Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov, stated on 24 July 2014 that the Eurasian Economic Union will have a common currency unit in a span of five to ten years.

A common belief is that the Eurasian Economic Union has significant potential over the next two decades, with experts predicting a 25 percent growth in the member states' GDP by 2030, which equates to over US$600 billion.

[8] The popular magazine The Economist stated that the advantages of joining the union remain unclear[111] and further remarked "The agreement was vague, with technical details left unresolved, making it a political show rather than an economic one".

[172] The South Korean president launched a "Eurasian Initiative", which seeks to connect transportation, electrical, gas and oil links from Western Europe to East Asia.

[journal 5] China's rise as a major trading partner has been cited as a potential reason for Russia's loss of control over Central Asian economies.

[journal 5] However, the development of the Russian Far East may face difficulties due to Russia's traditional orientation towards Europe and the region's backward infrastructure and underdeveloped economy.

[176] During the same year, a Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East was established and the country hosted a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) in its eastern city of Vladivostok.

[180][181] Having completed a free trade agreement (FTA) feasibility study for Vietnam in November 2012[182] the then Customs Union, which later became the EAEU, decided to proceed with negotiations.

[184] As announced by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich on 9 December 2013, Israel is considering starting free trade negotiations with the Eurasian Economic Union.

[192] On 10 March 2022, Russia suspended exports of wheat, meslin, rye, barley, and corn to the Eurasian Economic Union to secure the country's food supplies.

[196] After 1 January 2015, the members of the EAEU do not have the right to independently conclude a free trade in goods agreements because they delegated their powers to the supranational level according to the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union (Article 35).

[260][261][262] The commission's website has published information and news on international cooperation (documents, memoranda, visits, summits, events, conferences, negotiations with officials, representatives and ambassadors, etc.)

Broad cooperation in the format of memoranda of cooperation is established with the governments of Bangladesh, Jordan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Cuba, Morocco, Moldova, Mongolia, Peru, Singapore, Thailand, the Faroe Islands and Chile, as well as with the Andean Community, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the African Union, the Pacific Alliance, the Latin American Economic System (SELA) and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR).

[267] The Eurasian Economic Union mainly uses its arms industry,[268] raw materials,[269][270] gas and oil reserves,[citation needed] and railways[271][272] as its key assets for trade with foreign countries.

It proposed major high-speed railway lines going towards Europe via Russia and Kazakhstan and another through the Middle East via Tajikistan, a potential future member for the union.

At the time of joining the Union, the Republic of Armenia already had preferential treatment within the framework of the CIS as a party to the Free Trade Zone Agreement of 18 October 2011, and therefore enjoyed significant tariff benefits.

[296] The Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee in the Armenian Parliament, Artak Zakarian, announced on 14 May 2014 that Armenia will not build any customs borders, including with the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

[105] Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso stated at the World Economic Forum that the EU supports the regional integration, including the Eurasian Union.

[308][309] In response, some member states of the European Union have sought to find alternatives to Russian gas, while others have voiced their support for the construction of the South Stream pipeline which circumvents Ukraine.

[312] Thailand, Iran, New Zealand, Tunisia,[313] Turkey, and Vietnam are among the countries that expressed a desire to conclude trade agreements with the new Eurasian Economic Union after the treaty was signed.