YEREVAN, June 24. /ARKA/. Sergey Naryshkin, chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, told Armenian scientific community today at the National Academy of Sciences  that the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus is open for Armenia.

"The Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia is open to all CIS countries. If there is political will and the willingness of other states to join the Union it will expand. Armenia is one of these countries, which already has observer status in the Eurasian Economic Community", he said.
He said the first practical step in that direction wass the ratification of the agreement on CIS free trade zone, which takes into account the emergence of a new foreign trade entity to Armenia, which is the  Customs Union", he said.

Sergey Naryshkin said Armenia’s strong economic ties with Russia make Armenia’s interaction with countries involved in the Eurasian integration project especially urgent.
"We know that your country is watching with great interest the main stages of the Eurasian integration, in particular, establishment of the Customs Union, the formation of the Common Economic Space and the preparation of conditions for the creation of the first Eurasian Economic Union in 2015,"  said Naryshkin.

Senior Armenian government officials have repeatedly ruled out Armenia’s membership in the Customs Union on grounds that Armenia has no common border with any of its member states. -0-