ASTANA, May 29 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he has no doubt that cooperation between Moscow and Astana in the high technology sphere will be a success.
“The trade turnover is growing, humanitarian connections and contacts are expanding, and we have good prospective projects but we need to pay more and more attention to the issues of cooperation in the high technology sectors,” Putin said.
Putin said the Russian-Kazakh bilateral relations “are being developed in the best way.”
Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev met Thursday during the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council session in the Kazakh capital Astana.
The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on Thursday signed the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty in Astana that will enter into force on January 1, 2015.
The treaty is bringing Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus to a higher level of integration, as the three commit to guarantee the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor as well as the implementation of coordinated policies in key sectors, including energy, industry, agriculture and transport.
The project can be traced back to 1994, when President Nazarbayev proposed creating a Eurasian union.
“We have all grounds to believe that we will be successful in this direction,” Putin said, congratulating the Kazakh leader on the signing of the treaty. “This is your success if not to say triumph,” he added.
Nazarbayev thanked his Russian counterpart while saying that a great deal of work needs to be done to fulfill the Union’s future prosperity.
