At a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Saturday, November 28, the leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said his country will promote Baku’s interests in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), TASS reports.

“Azerbaijan has been and remains a reliable friend and partner for Belarus,” Lukashenko said. “As a sign of appreciation for our friendship, we are willing to sincerely and openly promote Baku’s interests in the EEU," he noted, stressing the need to find new areas of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Azerbaijan has previously expressed interest in joining the Eurasian Economic Union, stirring discussions in different circles. However, the President of the Scientific Society for Caucasus Studies Alexander Krilov believes it’s too early to speak about Azerbaijan’s involvement in the Union.

Although Azerbaijan has close economic ties with the majority of the EEU member states, the Union makes decisions by consensus: approval by all member states is necessary to start the accession process, he said in October.

According to the expert, expecting approval by Armenia is unrealistic unless the relations between the two countries are normalized. All the statements about Baku’s possible accession to the EEU will therefore have some declarative character, with no chance of practical implementation, he said.

The Eurasian Economic Union is an economic union of states located primarily in northern Eurasia. A treaty aiming for the establishment of the EEU 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 and Kyrgyzstan's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on October 9, 2014 and December 23, 2014, respectively. Armenia and Kyrgyzstan's accession treaties came into force on January 2, 2015 and August 6, 2015.