Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, reveals that the government is targeting the completion of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with countries in the Eurasian region in the first half of this year, an initiative expected to be a new opportunity for exports amid the global trade war.

The Eurasian region consists of Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Georgia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Airlangga said that there are three types of agreements included in the Indonesia-Eurasia (FTA), namely tariffs, non-tariff measures and investment guarantees.

"The President requested that the Indonesia-Eurasia FTA negotiations be completed in the first semester," he said on Monday, April 14, 2025.

Airlangga assessed that the Indonesia-Eurasia FTA would only be issued after June as the legal scraping process requires detailed discussion and a long time. Therefore, he cannot yet confirm when Indonesia-Eurasia can take effect.

The Indonesia-Eurasia FTA negotiations had begun since December 6, 2022. The negotiations were officially launched by Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan and Member of the Eurasian Trade Ministry Council Andrey Slepnev on December 5, 2022 online.

Zulkifli said the negotiations were one of Indonesia's efforts to expand its non-traditional export markets, especially to countries in the Eurasian region consisting of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

He cited that the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is a region with a strong economy and large market potential in the Northern Eurasian region. Indonesia views the EAEU as an important trading partner.

He said the trade agreement initiative includes trade in goods, rules to facilitate trade, and economic cooperation.

However, Indonesia's exports to the EAEU only reached US$1.1 billion in 2023. Meanwhile, Indonesia's imports from the EAEU only reached US$2.7 billion.

Indonesia's export products to the EAEU in 2023 were dominated by palm oil, copra, television sets, as well as electrical machinery and equipment. The main import products were coal, fertilizers, semi-finished products of non-alloy iron and steel, and wheat.