Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

The meeting took place during the President of Kazakhstan's official visit to Russia.

Excerpts from the transcript:

Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, Mr President. I am delighted to welcome you and the delegation from fraternal Kazakhstan to the Government House in Russia.

It is important that your first visit following your re-election as President of Kazakhstan is to the Russian Federation. We see this as evidence of the fact that our fraternal and allied relations, which rely on the long-time friendship between the people of Russia and our Kazakhstani partners, are becoming ever stronger.

You have just had talks with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. You have signed the Joint Declaration on the 30^th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations, and you have adopted strategic decisions on deepening cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan. Our governments, my colleague Mr Alikhan Smailov and I will now have to implement the decisions of our presidents. I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to convey my best wishes to him.

I would like to discuss the development of our cooperation. Despite the complicated geopolitical situation and foreign economic developments, our trade expanded by over 10 percent in January-October 2022 on the same period of 2021 and reached a record-breaking $22.2 billion. If this trend persists until late 2022, then I am confident that we will achieve new record-breaking indicators in terms of our mutual trade cooperation.

We are expediting all mutual projects, including those in industry, engineering, the civilian nuclear sector, agriculture and digitalisation. The mutually complementary nature of Russian and Kazakhstani economic, production and technological potential creates a good foundation for this.

Kazakhstan has accumulated over $17 billion worth of Russian investment, and we are implementing over 30 major projects. Members of the Intergovernmental Commission who held its 23^rd meeting in Moscow this past March are dealing with all the practical issues. We have a comprehensive cooperation programme until 2025. We prioritise our expanded interregional cooperation. Today, you and Vladimir Putin addressed a plenary meeting of the 18^th Interregional Cooperation Forum in Orenburg via videoconference. Of course, we will support interregional ties.

Mr President, I would like to welcome you once again. I am very happy to see you, and you now have the floor.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev: I am delighted to see you. We met in Astana not so long ago. Thank you for congratulating me on my re-election.

Indeed, I am making my first foreign visit, following my re-election as President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, to the Russian Federation. This seems deeply symbolic, and this has practical significance, too. We are thus saying that we value our cooperation with the Russian Federation. Of course, this also concerns the trade, economic and investment spheres.

Vladimir Putin and I believe that today's visit was quite packed. We expressed satisfaction with the results of my visit to Moscow, and we signed a declaration.

In addition, we discussed the most topical issues of our trade, economic and investment interaction, and we opened the Interregional Cooperation Forum involving border regions.

You have just mentioned our trade statistics. Indeed, our trade reached $24.5 billion last year, and we have now achieved similar indicators. There are about two more months left until the end of 2022. We need to calculate what we will accomplish in the last two months, by early 2023. I believe that, indeed, as you have said, we will post new statistics and new indicators.

Yes, we need to coordinate some additional issues during our talks. For example, this includes the gas sphere. However, we are not over-exaggerating any issues here. I have just told Vladimir Putin that it is necessary to discuss these issues but absolutely without any over-exaggeration. These are working issues, and I am confident that we will reach the relevant agreements. Vladimir Putin noted today that we need to establish a certain trilateral union. He is planning to call the President of Uzbekistan. We, too, need to delve into this issue. In any event, this involves me, not to mention our specialists. This will make it possible to reach the desired results and agreements. In principle, we are ready for this, and I do not see why not.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you as the Head of Government for your highly active and fruitful work that aims to achieve specific results. Indeed, one cannot help but feel satisfied with our current achievements, and I believe that we will continue to work in exactly this manner. In any event, Vladimir Putin and I have reached precisely this agreement on this issue today.

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