Context:
- Recently, India and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) bloc officials held talks to formally start the negotiation for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
About (EAEU):
- It is an Economic Union, established in 2015, that integrates several post-Soviet states.
- It includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Russian Federation (Russia).
Objectives:
- It aims to ease cross-border trade and labor migration and eliminate non-tariff trade barriers among member states.
- It has a Common External Tariff (CET) and a common customs code.
- It boasts a combined GDP of more than $1.5 trillion and represents a market of 180 million consumers.