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Russia and Tajikistan are engaged in negotiations on the republic’s accession to the newly-formalised Eurasian Economic Union, Russia’s parliamentary upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Thursday, TASS reported.

“Our Tajik counterparts are examining conditions for possible membership,” Matviyenko said. “We hope very much that Tajikistan will also join the Eurasian Economic Union eventually.”

Tajikistan’s upper house speaker Mahmadsaid Ubaydulloyev said a final decision to join the union will be made after the ongoing negotiations.

“We support integration essentially,” he added.

The Eurasian Economic Union, which envisages free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce and is based on the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, will become operational from January 1 next year.

A treaty to create the union was signed by the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, Vladimir Putin, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Alexander Lukashenko, in May of this year. Membership is open to other states assessed as sharing the assembly's aims and principles, its founders say.