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The Eurasian Economic Union is an open association, which can be expanded, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel on occasion of the EAEU’s fifth anniversary, TASS reports.

Speaking on the union’s goals, the Russian premier noted that its five member-states - Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan - "should not lag behind the global agenda," namely in digital economy, artificial intelligence, the creation of a quantum computer and other important projects.

"Only in this case our Eurasian Union will be a success," Medvedev said, stressing that this is an open union, which has its observers and can be expanded, making the member-states successful too. "So, the citizens of our countries will be fine, they will feel certain in our turbulent century."

According to Medvedev, the EAEU learns through errors of other integration associations. The five member-states managed to solve issues more quickly, compared with other unions, which had spent dozens of years on this effort.

"Another thing was when the European Union was created in the 1950s-1960s - when all this process began then, and they could act accurately, feelingly, with sense and clearly," he said, stressing that now there is the need for acting rapidly as "time is pressing."

The presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the Treaty on establishing the Eurasian Economic Union on May 29, 2014 in the Kazakh capital Astana (now Nur-Sultan). Armenia signed a treaty on joining the EAEU in October 2014 (the republic became its member on January 1, 2015), and Kyrgyzstan inked a similar agreement in December 2014, which entered into force in August 2015. In May 2018, Moldova was granted the status of an observer state.