Kyrgyzstan is interested in joining the Customs Union and the common economic space between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, the country's prime minister, Almazbek Atambayev, said on Friday.
"Kyrgyzstan and Russia have a common past, and I think our future will also be shared. We see Kyrgyzstan in the Customs Union and in the common economic space," Atambayev told the head of the Russian presidential administration, Sergei Naryshkin, during a meeting in Moscow.
"Once we were parts of the same great country, and no one is preventing us from being part of the common economic space and the Customs Union," he said.
The Customs Union between the three ex-Soviet neighbors became fully operational in early July, when the countries ratified the Customs Code. The states plan to scrap their customs borders on July 1, 2011.
The creation of a common economic space stipulating a free movement of goods, assets and labor force between the countries, is to become the next stage of their integration.
Kyrgyzstan saw large-scale opposition riots in April that overturned President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and brought the opposition to power. The political situation in the country stabilized after the country elected a new parliament and approved Roza Otunbayeva, the former opposition leader, as president for a transitional period until 2012.
MOSCOW, December 28 (RIA Novosti)