“The Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) could welcome Iran as a new member in May,”  Russia’s Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak was quoted as saying by the Russian Russia Today (RT).

“The move to enter into a temporary agreement making for a free trade zone to be set up between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union, which is currently at an advanced stage, will obviously trigger further development of our bilateral trade and expansion of investment cooperation,” said Novak, who is also co-head of the Russian-Iranian intergovernmental commission.

The RT report went on to add that Iran’s Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei had told another Russian news outlet TASS earlier that work on a free-trade zone agreement between the sides that started in 2015 was close to completion.

A trade bloc established in 2015, the EEU is based on the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. It was later joined by Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The union is designed to ensure the free movement of goods, services, capital and workers between member countries.