Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a law ratifying the free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran. The document has been published on the official website.
 
The agreement, aimed at reducing or eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers in trade and fostering economic cooperation between the EAEU and Iran, was signed during a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 25, 2023.
 
The intergovernmental agreement between Russia and South Ossetia on a duty-free trade, which involves quotas-free energy supplies to the republic, was also ratified by Putin, in addition to four protocols establishing a legal basis for restricting Serbian debts to Russia on several intergovernmental agreements. 
 
The protocols, signed in Moscow and Belgrade in November 2023, amend bilateral treaties regarding Russia’s state export loan to Serbia, a financial loan, and the settlement of Serbia’s debt to Russia on behalf of the former Yugoslavia.

Russia establishing free trade zones with Iran, Egypt

In December 2023, two days after the visit, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Rossiya 1 TV that Iran will sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member countries in December. 

"Several important documents will be signed shortly. In December - an agreement on a free trade zone between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union, and we will also soon reach a key document - this is an interstate agreement," Novak said.

By the end of December 2023, the final stages of negotiations for the establishment of a free trade zone between Egypt and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) were underway, as stated by Alexey Tevanyan, the Russian Trade Representative to Egypt, to Sputnik.

Dmitry Birichevsky, the director of the Department of Economic Cooperation at the Russian Foreign Ministry, informed Sputnik that a nearly finalized draft of a free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Egypt was in progress.

"The signing of a free trade agreement between Egypt and the EAEU will facilitate the access of our goods to the Egyptian market. Negotiations on the free trade zone are at the final stage," Tevanyan said, adding that Russian engineering products are esteemed in Egypt due to their advantageous price-quality ratio.

"Egyptians have purchased a large batch of our passenger cars and are well acquainted with Lada cars, which have long been assembled at local facilities," Tevanyan said.