According to Mu-ming Poo, the principal significance of this event is that it could be used to create genetically identical monkeys for use in animal experiments.  Crab-eating macaques are already an established model organism for studies of atherosclerosis, though Poo chose to emphasize neuroscience, naming Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers disease when he appeared on the radio news program All Things Considered in January 2018.
The birth of the two cloned primates also raised concerns from bioethicists.  Insoo Hyun of Case Western Reserve University questioned whether this meant that human cloning would be next. Poo told All Things Considered that "Technically speaking one can clone human[s] ... But were not going to do it. Theres absolutely no plan to do anything on humans."