The Islamic Republic of Iran has been granted observer status in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

The EAEU’s official website says the decision was made during the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council that took place in the Leningrad district on December 26. 

The leaders of the EAEU member nations also approved the entry into force of the free trade agreement between EAEU and Iran, which was signed last December.

A total of 17 documents were approved at the meeting. In addition to agreements with Iran, they include a deal on a unified customs transit system, a directive on the operation of a single services market within the EAEU, and others. Armenia will hand over the EAEU chairmanship to Belarus starting in 2025.

Xinhua reports that Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission, noted after the meeting that Iran is one of the important partners of EAEU.

“Trade turnover between the two parties nearly doubled from 2018 to 2023, and in the first 10 months of 2024, it rose by 12.8 percent,” Sagintayev said, adding that the free trade agreement will enable both sides to increase trade volume and overall economic cooperation more effectively.

Meanwhile Iran’s Mehr News Agency (MNA) says Iran's exports to EAEU member countries increased by 21% in value and 22% in volume during the first nine months of the current Iranian year (from March 20 to December 20, 2024), compared to the same period last year (from March 21 to December 21, 2023).

Over the reporting period, Iran has reportedly exported 3.86 million tons of goods to EAEU countries, worth approximately US$1.5 billion.

The EAEU is an economic union of five post-Soviet states located in Eurasia.  The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on May 29, 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and came into force on January 1, 2015. Treaties aiming for Armenia's and Kyrgyzstan's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on October 9 and December 23, 2014, respectively.  Armenia's accession treaty came into force on January 2, 2015 and Kyrgyzstan's accession treaty came into effect on August 6. 2015.

The EAEU has an integrated single market, and as of 2023, it has consisted of 183 million people and a gross domestic product of over US$2.4 trillion.