The Eurasian Intergovernmental Council met over two days at Cholpon-Ata on Lake Issyk-Kul, chaired by Kazakhstan's Olzhas Bektenov. The expanded session opened on Friday morning with more than 15 items in front of it and closed with three agreements and three directives.
Pashinyan used his slot to name a running dispute. "What is happening now in the space of the union only provokes a negative perception of the union in the Republic of Armenia," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying. "I mean the restrictions our respected Russian colleagues have introduced on Armenian goods."
Since 12 June, Rosselkhoznadzor has restricted all quarantine-regulated Armenian products and their transit through Russia to other member states. Moscow puts the measure down to quality control at Armenian producers rather than to politics. The transit restriction predates the Armenian dairy ban of 27 July, with which it has often been conflated.
"What is happening now in the space of the union only provokes a negative perception of the union in the Republic of Armenia."
He put the membership on a balance sheet. Armenia paid about $319 million into the union in 2025 and took about $175 million back, on the figures he gave; its trade inside the common market ran to $5 billion of imports and $3.2 billion of exports. The Interfax account of the speech does not say what the receipts consist of.
He also drew a line under a second question. Armenia’s dealings with the European Union contain nothing that contradicts its obligations as a member, he said, and a member’s ties to third countries should not be read as a zero-sum game. Simultaneous membership of both blocs, he added, is impossible.
The signing went ahead. The prime ministers of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia put their names to agreements on common rules for electronic commerce; on admitting brokers and dealers from one member state to organised trading in another on terms no less favourable than local firms get, with remote access to trading, clearing and depository services; and on mutual recognition of the academic titles of professor, associate professor and senior researcher, without national recognition procedures in ordinary cases.
Three directives followed: the Commission’s annual report on competition in cross-border markets, the 2024–2025 regulatory-impact monitoring report, and the date and place of the next meeting. That is Minsk, 1 and 2 October. The chair passes to Kyrgyzstan in 2027, which will also host the Eurasian Economic Forum that year.
The host government spent its own speaking time on prices. Food inflation "is becoming a source of social tension", Adylbek Kasymaliev said, asking the Commission to monitor agricultural markets and forecast shortages. Kyrgyz food and soft-drink prices rose 5.4% in the first half of 2026 and about 9.2% over the year, on National Statistical Committee figures. Earlier in the day he relayed a call from President Sadyr Japarov to simplify procedures, speed the movement of goods and widen access to each other’s markets.
Bektenov set out the Kazakh chair’s list for the year: artificial intelligence, logistics hubs, industrial digitalisation, the agro-industrial complex, barrier-free trade and dialogue with outside partners, with food security and new export markets beside them.
The accounts the desk read carry no Russian answer to Pashinyan from the venue. Rosselkhoznadzor’s restriction has no published end date.