MOSCOW, April 28 (UPI) -- Top Russian official Sergey Naryshkin suggested talks for a merger between Russia's economic bloc and the European Union in a column published Tuesday.
Naryshkin, chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament, wrote the column in response to Czech President Milos Zeman's claim that he wished Russia would one day join the EU.
Currently, the Eurasian Economic Union (E.E.U) is a bloc made up of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. Kyrgyzstan will join in May. Naryshkin suggested the merger between the E.E.U. and E.U.
"Czech President Zeman predicted a common future of the European Union and Russia," Naryshkin wrote in Tuesday's issue of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. "And do not even rule out the possibility that the EU countries will join the Russian Federation."
Related
"Our country has repeatedly talked about the possibility of future integration of two regional associations -- the E.E.U. and the European Union," Naryshkin stated. "Has the time come for such plans and forecasts? Is it too early? No, now is the time to not only dream, but to speak. The time has come to start consultations."
The E.E.U. bloc was established Jan. 1, 2015. It has a population of about 171 million people and an estimated gross domestic product of $3 trillion for 2016.
Russia "has always been and will always remain in the common family of European people," Naryshkin wrote, adding that the union of economic blocs is not a fantasy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a public speech last December that the E.E.U. has the potential to expand.
"The increase in the number of members is beneficial to the union itself. It boosts its market capacity and contributes to the strengthening of trade and economic ties, and to the launching of new investment," Putin said in Moscow.
