21. 05.2009
Russia and Kazakhstan have opted for pooling their potentials to rebuff the aftermath of the global economic crisis, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday as he addressed reporters after the inter-governmental talks with Kazakhstani officials.
In the course of negotiations, the sides agreed again to step up efforts towards fulfilling the entire set of measures featured in the Russian-Kazakhstani Plan of Joint Action in 2009 and 2010.
“The case in hand is joint research in the field of space exploration, as well as cooperation in the energy and fuel sector, natural gas production and power-generating industry, civilian atomic energy, and defence-related technologies,” Putin said.
“ Kazakhstan is a key economic partner for Russia ,” he said, recalling that bilateral trade increased 19% in 2008 versus the previous year and stood at 19.7 billion U.S. dollars.
Russian companies' accumulated investment in the Kazakhstani economy stands at 7 billion U.S. dollars.
“We'll continue creating favorable conditions for mutually beneficial cooperation and implementation of large-scale joint projects,” Putin said.
He also said, collective steps to counteract terrorism and drugs threats and to resolve pressing regional and international problems were discussed.
“Next year opens up broad opportunities in this sense, as Russia will have a rotating presidency in the Commonwealth of Independent States, while Kazakhstan will take up the chairing functions in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ,” Putin said.
The current meeting in Astana marked one more tangible step towards the expansion of strategic partnership between the two countries, he added.