Russian president Vladimir Putin expects that trade turnover between Russia and Kazakhstan will reach a record of $20 billion by the end of this year.
"The interaction between our countries is really intensive, multidimensional and mutually beneficial, and it has been so practically always throughout modern history," said the Russian head of state, speaking at a plenary session of the forum of interregional cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan on Thursday.
Putin specified that, above all, it concerns trade and investment sphere. "So, for 7 months of this year bilateral trade turnover has increased by 34% and amounted, according to our data, $14 billion. It is expected that at the end of the year the mutual trade will reach a record of $20 billion," said the president of Russia.
Putin considers it very important that this year the forum of inter-regional cooperation was held, though in an online format because of the coronavirus pandemic. According to his assessment, this event "makes a significant contribution not only to the development of ties between the subjects of the Russian Federation and the regions of Kazakhstan, but also generally contributes to the strengthening of a comprehensive Russian-Kazakh strategic partnership". The president is convinced that the current discussions "will also bring real, practical results".
The Russian leader believes that it is interregional cooperation that makes a significant contribution to expanding economic cooperation. "Strong ties with all regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan are maintained by 76 of the 85 subjects of the Russian Federation," Putin noted. He drew attention to the fact that the exchange of delegations of regional authorities, representatives of business and the public has continued and is actively developing. According to the Russian president, "only in the third quarter of this year, Kazakhstan visited the heads of Bashkortostan, Astrakhan and Ryazan regions, the next visit to their Kazakh colleagues representatives of Udmurtia and the Sverdlovsk region". He also noted the work on twin cities.
"Impressive legal base of regional cooperation was formed, a number of important agreements between the subjects of the Russian Federation and regions of Kazakhstan were signed on the occasion of this forum, an intergovernmental agreement is being prepared, to be more precise, even a program of interregional and cross-border cooperation until 2023", said the Russian leader.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Federation Council
Based on materials from TASS