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First Post
12 minutes ago
- First Post
What is Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union with which India is talking trade?
India has signed a terms of reference (TOR) to open trade talks with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The development comes in the backdrop of a bilateral deal between India and the United States being stalled – much to the frustration of US President Donald Trump and his top officials. But what do we do about the EAEU, of which Russia is a prominent member? Why is it increasingly important to India? Trade between India and the EAEU stood at $69 billion in 2024. That figure was a seven per cent increase over 2023, according to data from the commerce ministry. Image courtesy: X After signing a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United Kingdom, India is continuing to negotiate trade deals. New Delhi is currently in talks with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). India and the EAEU in Russia signed the terms of reference to open negotiations for an FTA. The development comes in the backdrop of a bilateral deal between India and the United States being stalled – much to the frustration of US President Donald Trump and his top officials. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But what do we do about the Eurasian Economic Union? Why is it increasingly important to India? Let's take a closer look What is the EAEU? First let's take a brief look at the EAEU. The bloc comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation. It was established via the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union, which was signed in Kazakhstan in May 2014 and took effect in January 2015. Its website described its objective as facilitating 'the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labour' among its members. It also coordinates and harmonises policies across sectors. Cuba, Moldova and Uzbekistan have all been granted observer status in the EAEU, while there have been discussions about admitting Azerbaijan. It is the successor to the Eurasian Customs Union, which was formed in 2010 and comprised Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan as well as the Single Economic Space, which was established in 2012. These groups were founded as a response to both the 2008 financial crisis the EU Eastern Partnership Policy (EaP), which was launched in 2010. Moscow at the time wanted to present an alternative to the European Union, which it viewed as impinging on its sphere of influence. The Eurasian Customs Union became the Eurasian Economic Union after Armenia joined the bloc. , Russia being the largest member of the bloc by far, easily dominates proceedings. Reuters Interestingly, Russia also tried to get Ukraine to join the grouping but failed. This, in fact, let to protests in Ukraine in 2014 and the ouster of the then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whom many in Kyiv derided as a Russian crony. Russia would later invade Crimea that very same year. Kyrgyzstan, an ally of Kazakhstan, joined the block in August 2015. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The bloc has a combined GDP of $6.5 trillion. It accounts for around 2.2 per cent of the world's population – around 180 million people. The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), its main agency and regulatory body, comprises all members states and is based in Moscow. The EEC comprises 10 members – two ministers from each member state. One of the members acts as the body's chairman. It also has a Eurasian Economic Union Court, which is based in Minsk. However, Russia being the largest member of the bloc by far, easily dominates proceedings. Why EAEU is increasingly important to India Trade between India and the EAEU stood at $69 billion in 2024. That figure was a seven per cent increase over 2023, according to data from the commerce ministry. India and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) signed the terms of reference (TOR) to launch on Wednesday (August 20) in Moscow. The TOR provides a frame of reference on which negotiations can be built. India has been discussing a free trade agreement with the EAEU since 2017. Talks between India and the grouping stalled after the outbreak of the Ukraine war. It revived in July 2014 during the 22nd annual bilateral summit between Russia and India in Moscow. President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the time expressed a willingness to sign an FTA. Chief negotiators from both sides held a virtual meeting in January. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD New Delhi has now seemingly turning towards Russia and China after a fallout with Trump, who called both India and Russia 'dead economies'. Modi will likely meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to China later this month. He has already spoken to Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bilateral trade talks between India and the US have stalled. The bloc has grown more important for India in recent years because of New Delhi's increasing reliance on Moscow for oil. Prior to the Ukraine war, India bought negligible amount of oil from Russia – preferring to rely on its traditional sources in West Asia. However, today Russia comprises over a third of India's crude oil imports. 'India and the EAEU comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation signed the Terms of Reference (ToR) to launch negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) today in Moscow. The ToR was signed by Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce Ajay Bhadoo, and Deputy Director, Trade Policy Department, EEC, Mikhail Cherekaev,' the commerce and industry ministry said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'With a combined GDP of $6.5 trillion, the proposed FTA is expected to expand market access for Indian exporters, support diversification into new sectors and geographies, enhance competitiveness against non-market economies, and deliver significant benefits to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),' the commerce ministry statement read. 'Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the early conclusion of the agreement and to building a long-term institutional framework for trade cooperation,' it added. Other FTAs on horizon India isn't just talking to the EAEU. In fact, India is considering stitching together separate deals with the European Union, Oman, Chile and Peru. Talks with Oman have ended and the trade deal is expected to be signed soon. Discussions between India and the European Union are slated for September. Meanwhile, the FTA between India and the United States has seemingly hit a roadblock. T rump, who has imposed a hefty tariff on India for buying Russian oil and trading with Moscow, has refused to further negotiate until India stops doing so. India has head back at the United States claiming that the tariff is unfair, unjust and unreasonable. New Delhi has also pointed to hypocrisy on the part of the US-led West and the European Union for their own dealings with Russia. Moscow has said that every independent nation deserves to choose its trading partners. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD New Delhi has vowed never to compromise on the national interest while negotiating a free trade deal . Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the tariffs last week, said he was willing to pay a political price in order to protect the farmers. The United States wants India to open up its sensitive agriculture and dairy sector. However New Delhi has refused to do so, saying it could negatively impact millions of small-scale farmers. With inputs from agencies
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First Post
12 minutes ago
- First Post
Trump working to arrange Putin-Zelenskyy meet: What happened during their first and only meeting?
Donald Trump has suggested direct talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which would be their first meeting in over three years of the war. The two leaders last met in December 2019 during the Normandy Format talks, which went on until 2022, when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine In Paris in 2019, the two men sat down together as part of what was known as the Normandy Format talks. AFP/File Photo Donald Trump has raised the prospect of directs talks between Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, in what would be the first such encounter in more than three years of war between the two countries. In a social media post on Aug. 18, 2025, the US president announced that he had begun 'the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined.' Whether the proposed meeting does go ahead given the animosity between the two men remains to be seen. Previous speculation earlier in 2025 that Putin and Zelenskyy might engage in face-to-face talks led nowhere. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But should Trump succeed in bringing Putin and Zelenkyy together, it would not be the first time they have met. In Paris in 2019, the two men sat down together as part of what was known as the Normandy Format talks. As a scholar of international relations, I have interviewed people involved in the talks. Some five years on, the way the talks floundered and then failed can offer lessons about the challenges today's would-be mediators now face. Normandy Format talks The Normandy Format talks started on the sidelines of events in June 2014 commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The aim was to try to resolve the ongoing conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatist groups in the country's Donbas region in the east. That conflict had recently escalated, with pro-Russian separatists seizing key towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk after Russia illegally annexed the peninsula of Crimea in February 2014. The talks continued periodically until 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Until that point, most of the discussion was framed by two deals, the Minsk accords of 2014 and 2015, which set out the terms for a ceasefire between Kyiv and the Moscow-armed rebel groups and the conditions for elections in Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the conference. Reuters/File Photo By the time of the sixth meeting in December 2019, the only time Zelenkyy and Putin have met in person, some still hoped that the Minsk accords could form a framework for peace. Putin & Zelenskyy's desires then Zelenskyy was only a few months into his presidency. He arrived in Paris with fresh energy and a desire to find peace. His electoral campaign had centered on the promise of putting an end to the unrest in Donbas, which had been rumbling on for years. The increasing role of Russia in the conflict, through supporting rebels financially and with volunteer Russian soldiers, had complicated and escalated fighting, and many Ukrainians were weary of the impact of internally displaced people that it caused. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD By all accounts, Zelenskyy went into Paris believing that he could make a deal with Putin. 'I want to return with concrete results,' Zelenskyy said just days before meeting Putin. By then, the Ukrainian president's only contact with Putin had been over the phone. 'I want to see the person and I want to bring from Normandy understanding and feeling that everybody really wants gradually to finish this tragic war,' Zelenskyy said, adding, 'I can feel it for sure only at the table.' One of Putin's main concerns going into the talks was the lifting of Western sanctions imposed in response to the annexation of Crimea. But the Russian president also wanted to keep Russia's smaller neighbour under its influence. Ukraine gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. But in the early years of the new century, Russia began to exert increasing influence over the politics of its neighbour. This ended in 2014, when a popular revolution ousted pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and ushered in a pro-Western government. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD More than anything, Russia wanted to arrest this shift and keep Ukraine out of the European Union and Nato. Those desires – Ukraine's to end the war in Donbas, and Russia's to curb the West's involvement in Ukraine – formed the parameters for the Normandy talks. And for some time, there appeared to be momentum to find compromise. French President Emmanuel Macron said that the 2019 Paris talks had broken years of stalemate and relaunched the peace process. Putin's assessment was that the peace process was 'developing in the right direction.' Zelenskyy's view was a little less enthusisastic: 'Let's say for now it's a draw.' So, what happened? Yet the Putin-Zelenskyy meeting in 2019 ultimately ended in failure. In retrospect, both sides were talking past each other and could not reach agreement on the sequencing of key parts of the peace plan. Zelenskyy wanted the security provisions of the Minsk accords, including a lasting ceasefire and the securing of Ukraine's border with Russia, in place before proceeding with regional elections on devolving autonomy to the regions. Putin was adamant that the elections come first. The Putin-Zelenskyy meeting in 2019 ultimately ended in failure. Reuters/File Photo The success of the Normandy talks were also hindered by Putin's refusal to acknowledge that Russia was a party to the conflict. Rather, he framed the Donbas conflict as a civil war between the Ukrainian government and the rebels. Russia's role was simply to push the rebels to the negotiating table in this take – a view that was greeted with skepticism by Ukraine and the West. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As a result, the Normandy talks stalled. And then in February 2022, Russian launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. So, will the face-to-face meeting happen? So what are the chances of success should Trump secure a second face-to-face meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy? Many of the same challenges remain. The talks still revolve around the issues of security, the status of Donetsk and Luhansk. But there are major differences – not least, 3½ years of actual direct war. Russia can no longer deny that it is a party of the conflict, even if Moscow frames the war as a special military operation to 'denazify' and demilitarise Ukraine. And three years of war have changed how the questions of Crimea and the Donbas are framed. In the Normandy talks, there was no talk of recognising Russian control over any Ukrainian territory. But recent U.S. efforts to negotiate peace have included a 'de-jure' U.S. recognition of Russian control in Crimea, plus 'de-facto recognition' of Russia's occupation of nearly all of Luhansk oblast and the occupied portions of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Another major difference between the negotiation process then and now is who is mediating. The Normandy negotiations were led by European leaders – German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Macron of France. Throughout the whole Normandy talks process, only Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia were involved as active participants. Today, it is the United States taking the lead. And this suits Putin. A constant issue for Putin of the Normandy talks was that Germany and France were never neutral mediators. In President Donald Trump, Putin has found a U.S. leader who, at least at first, appeared eager to take on the mantle from Europe. But like the Europeans involved in the Normandy talks, Trump may also encounter similar barriers to any meaningful progress. Despite his recent high-profile summit with Putin and follow-up meeting with Zelenksyy, Trump has made little progress toward ending the conflict in Ukraine. And neither Zelenskyy nor Putin has shown any inclination to compromise on their goals: Zelenskyy has ruled out land swaps, while Putin insists that any peace deal address 'root causes.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Getting the leaders of Ukraine and Russia into the same room is already a massive challenge; getting them to agree to a lasting agreement may be as elusive now as it was when Putin and Zelenskyy met in 2019. Anna Batta, Associate Professor of International Security Studies, Air University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Economic Times
12 minutes ago
- Economic Times
US, EU lock in trade deal; US official sees auto tariff relief in weeks
Agencies The United States is a key market for European automakers, which last year sent nearly 750,000 of its cars to it, representing nearly a quarter of the sector's overall exports. The United States and the European Union on Thursday locked in a framework trade deal reached last month that includes a 15% U.S. tariff on most EU imports, including autos, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber. In a 3-1/2-page joint statement, the two sides listed the commitments made, including the EU's pledge to eliminate tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and to provide preferential market access for a wide range of U.S. seafood and agricultural goods. Washington will take steps to reduce the current 27.5% U.S. tariffs on cars and car parts, a huge burden for European carmakers, once Brussels introduces the legislation needed to enact promised tariff cuts on U.S. goods, it said. U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal on July 27 at Trump's luxury golf course in Turnberry, Scotland after an hour-long meeting that followed months of negotiations. The two leaders met again this week as part of negotiations aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine, with both lauding their trade framework deal as an historic accomplishment. The joint statement said the deal could be expanded over time to cover additional areas and further improve market access. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said European carmakers could see relief from the current U.S. tariffs within "hopefully weeks." "As soon as they're able to introduce that legislation -- and I don't mean pass it and fully implement it, but really introduce it -- then we will be in a position to provide that relief. And I will say that both sides are very interested in moving quickly," they said. The joint statement was "a play to hold each other accountable" and ensure that both sides carried out the pledges announced last month, the official said. "We are trying to sequence with the European Union to make sure that ... they feel sufficient pressure to obtain the mandate they need to begin the legislative process for reducing their tariffs, as they've promised," the official said. "We're confident that they'll do that. It's just good for all parties to make sure that everyone's on the same page and taking actions around the same time." The statement said U.S. tariff relief on autos and auto parts would kick in on the first day of the month in which the EU introduced the legislation, offering the prospect of retroactive relief for carmakers. It was not immediately clear when Brussels would start the legislative process. The joint statement noted that the U.S. agreed to apply only Most Favored Nation tariffs from September 1 on EU aircraft and parts, generic pharmaceuticals and ingredients, chemical precursors and unavailable natural resources, including cork. It reiterated the EU's intention to procure $750 billion in U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil and nuclear energy products, plus an additional $40 billion of U.S.-made artificial intelligence chips. It also repeated the intention for EU companies to invest an additional $600 billion across U.S. strategic sectors through 2028. Both sides committed to address "unjustified digital trade barriers," the statement said, and the EU agreed not to adopt network usage fees. They also agreed to negotiate rules of origin to ensure that the agreement's benefits accrued predominantly to both trading partners. In addition, they said they would consider cooperation to ring-fence their respective steel and aluminum markets from overcapacity, while ensuring secure supply chains between each other, including through tariff quotas.
