Russian-led trade bloc treaty to be signed next month-Kazakhstan

A treaty on creating a Russian-led trade bloc may be signed next month, Kazakhstan's foreign minister said on Thursday, advancing President Vladimir Putin's plan to create a regional counterweight to the European Union (EU), Reuters reported. Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov said the pact to shape an existing customs union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan into the Eurasian Economic Union could be formalised in May. "We are actively getting ready for this," Idrisov told reporters after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. "At the end of this month there will be an important meeting of our leaders in Minsk that we expect will open the way for a key meeting in Astana at the end of May, when the agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union will be signed and formalised."