Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made his first foreign visit after winning the early presidential elections in Kazakhstan to Russia. In Moscow, he met with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Zakon.kz reports.
Tokayev thanked Putin for his congratulations and good wishes on his re-election as President of Kazakhstan and noted the exemplary relations between the countries, Akorda reports. Putin congratulated Tokayev as one of the first presidents from the CIS.
"First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for your personal congratulations on my re-election to the post of President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Indeed, my first foreign visit after this event is here, to the Russian Federation, which in itself has a deep political significance. Of course there is a certain symbolism in this visit. On the other hand, it is quite natural, since we are talking about cooperation between our countries. This year we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Today we are signing a declaration dedicated to this historic date," the head of Kazakhstan said.
President Tokayev stressed that trade and economic cooperation is actively expanding between Kazakhstan and Russia.
“For Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation has been and remains the main strategic partner, a state with which we have deep relations in various sectors. You just referred to the opening of the next meeting of the Forum for Interregional Cooperation, this time it is taking place in Orenburg. There are very solid foundations for this to move on. The volume of trade between our countries, despite all the difficulties associated with the pandemic, has reached $ 24.5 billion. Very big plans for the presence of Russian capital in our country. I, as the head of state and my government, will do everything possible to ensure this presence on a permanent basis, of course, from the point of view of mutual benefit. There is every reason to be satisfied with the way cooperation between the countries is developing. At the same time, we need to look ahead, and this is precisely why I came here," Tokayev said.
In response, Putin once again congratulated Tokayev on his election victory and stressed the close economic cooperation between the two countries.
"We highly appreciate it. We have now participated in the Forum of the Regions, which is held regularly. I am sure that our colleagues will achieve significant concrete results there too, because a significant amount of trade goes through the border areas, people communicate with each other, they know the situation better about the opportunities We have now noted an increase in trade in 2021. It is also growing steadily in 2022. We are also working in our traditional areas, in high-tech areas, which is extremely important for the future," Russian President Putin said in response.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
Nov. 28, 2022