"The process of negotiations on the free trade area and the corresponding agreement between the EAEU and the Indonesian government was launched at the end of last year," Vorobieva said, adding that according to preliminary estimates, the process could take up to two years.
Indonesians are very enthusiastic about the prospects for such cooperation, the diplomat added.
"They have a lot of experience: Indonesia has many such agreements, and they strongly count on the imminent signing of this agreement," the Russian ambassador said.
In early December 2022, Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Trade Minister Andrey Slepnev said that the EAEU attached great importance to the development of mutually beneficial cooperation with Indonesia, one of the main trading partners in ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.
The EAEU, which is made up of five former Soviet countries — Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia — is designed to ensure the free movement of goods, services and labor between member states implemented via common economic policies and regulation in the areas of industry, agriculture, energy, foreign trade and investment.