NUR-SULTAN / ex ASTANA (Satrapia) — Kazakhstan is not negotiating on joint anti-sanctions measures of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries.

Earlier today, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin has declared that “the issue of responding to unfriendly sanctions by third countries against the EAEU has been put on the agenda, it is being considered and will be considered.” However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan reacted by rejecting such action and issued a statement, saying:

Kazakhstan is not negotiating any “joint measures” of the EAEU countries in response to sanctions of other states. In working with partners for Eurasian integration, we can only talk about joint actions to prevent the negative impact of such sanctions on the socio-economic development of our states," said a statement issued on Saturday.

The Kazakh Foreign Ministry stressed that according to the Treaty on the EAEU, signed on May 29, 2014, the purpose of the union is to ensure freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and labour, to create conditions for stable development of the member states’ economies in the interests of improving the well-being of their peoples:

Kazakhstan holds the position that the integration processes within the EAEU are purely economic in nature. We traditionally note the inadmissibility of vesting the bodies of Eurasian integration with non-relevant functions and oppose the politicisation of the Union. In the context of the discussion of initiatives that go beyond the scope of the EAEU Treaty, including the application of retaliatory measures against sanctions imposed by third countries, we believe that Western sanctions are primarily political in nature and are aimed against individual states, not the EAEU as a whole.