Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Kyrgyzstan has expressed its political will by stating its desire to join the Customs Union which unites Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Telegraph Agency quoted Kyrgyz Prime Minister Jantoro Satybaldiyev as saying on September 25.

According to him, there is a progress in the process of joining the union.

However, there are several difficulties in this regard and in order to resolve them, Kyrgyzstan needs political support from the member countries of the Customs Union, Satybaldiyev said.

The Customs Union was established in 2010 between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The purpose of the Customs Union is the formation of a single customs territory, within which no customs duties or economic limitations are applied. The single economic space of the Customs Union started operating on January 1, 2012.

The experts believe that the accession of Kyrgyzstan to the Russia-backed Customs Union will lead to many negative consequences, including significant increase of prices in the country and thus, Kyrgyzstan will become dependent on other members of the organization.

However, other experts think that after joining the union, Kyrgyzstan will have the opportunity to receive raw materials from the organization's member-states in a more profitable way.

The Kyrgyz government believes that the country is a favorable transit country and an object for making investments to the Customs Union.

Meanwhile, it was reported in May that Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev doubts that Kyrgyzstan will join the Customs Union in 2015.

"The date of Kyrgyzstan's joining the Customs Union is 2015. This date is desirable for the country's leadership. However the desire alone is not enough," Atambayev said.

In April Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia fully supports Kyrgyzstan's efforts to join the Customs Union. However, according to Medvedev, Kyrgyzstan still must sign "64 more documents" before joining the union.