Brussels - Saba:
The European Commission has proposed the creation of a Eurasian trading bloc based on free trade principles and revised World Trade Organization (WTO) standards, as a Western competitor to BRICS.
This came in a statement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a press conference following the EU summit on Thursday evening.
Von der Leyen said: "I presented an attractive and interesting idea at the summit, which is that the CPTPP countries, i.e. the Asian countries, want structured cooperation with the EU, and the EU wants structured cooperation with them. We can consider starting the process of restructuring the WTO, with a clear understanding of what needs to be revised and without repeating the mistakes of the past, to demonstrate that free trade between a large number of countries is possible based on rules, because the EU and the CPTPP together constitute a real force."