President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon dear ladies and gentlemen. The President of Kazakhstan and I have concluded the first part of our work. As one might expect, the results are positive and we have taken a significant step forward in developing our bilateral relations. We noted that all of the agreements we reached during the President of Kazakhstan’s official visit to Russia are being implemented. First and foremost there are noticeable improvements with respect to coordinating tariffs, something that is extremely important both for our partners from Kazakhstan and for increasing the volume of freight transported by Russian railways. I am confident that the compromises we made are the most effective way to ensure the development of our countries’ economic ties.
During today’s meeting we made significant steps towards reaching a cooperation agreement in the energy sector. Our experts agreed on joint steps for extracting, processing, refining and delivering gas from Kazakhstan. In general volumes of gas are determined by experts. These volumes can be compared to the amounts extracted from major Russian deposits. An agreement on prices has been reached, something that as a matter of fact was the most difficult issue in negotiations up until now. But in the presence of Nursultan Abishevich and the President of Russia, your faithful servant, energy experts were able to overcome this barrier. This was to our mutual satisfaction and we reached a compromise acceptable to all.
We also created a new basis for cooperation in the sphere of military technology and in cooperation between military departments. We agreed on the next steps to take in connection with developing the armed forces both in Russia and in Kazakhstan. We further agreed on cooperation in the field of military technology, and I am referring to the possibility of increasing the amount of Russian military equipment purchased by our partners in Kazakhstan.
You know that in Kazan during the summit meeting of the heads of state members of the CIS we reached an agreement whereby Kazakhstan assumes the CIS presidency. Today Nursultan Abishevich and I finished signing the corresponding documents. As of today the President of Kazakhstan will take on the presidency of the CIS.
This is an incomplete list of the problems and issues that we discussed. If I have left something out, then Nursultan Abishevich will address the issue. Thank you very much for your attention.
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev: I accepted the President of Russia’s invitation to Sochi, somewhere I have not been for a long time, with a great deal of gratitude. It’s spring, everything is in flowers, everything is perfect and full of vigour, just as Russia’s and Kazakhstan’s economies are invigorated. Vladimir Vladimirovich has spoken about the substantial part of our discussion. I do not wish to repeat anything, but I will touch on our integration process as a whole.
As you will remember the CIS was established 21 December 1991 in Almaty. The CIS celebrates its 15 th anniversary this year. This was not an easy time for the CIS, we are all aware of statements made by some of our partners. Everyone can judge and speak for themselves but the CIS played the most important role during the collapse of the former Soviet Union. And all honest people should be thankful because it was for precisely this reason that the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the process of becoming independent took place without bloodshed and major conflicts between republics. Meetings played a major role.
Today, now that the independence of these republics is more firmly established and the economy has started to revive, of course everyone looks back, but in today’s world nobody refuses the process of integration, first and foremost with neighbours and all of us are neighbours.
Therefore with the help and support of my colleagues I wish to look at the CIS carefully one more time and ask them to hold the 15 th anniversary in Kazakhstan, at the very same place that we established the CIS. To give the organization the new impulse that we agreed to in Kazan: reorganize the structure of the CIS, make sure that it is more effective and more interesting for all states that are part of this organization.
We spoke about the Eurasian Community, the meeting which takes place in Minsk this year. We spoke about the fact that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will hold its fifth session in Shanghai. All preparations are proceeding very seriously. Serious decisions will be taken there. Major states would like to become members of this organization. This will take place on the 14 – 15 of June. 17 June in Almaty there will be a second session, a meeting on confidence-building measures in Asia. And we are thankful to Vladimir Vladimirovich who will come to this meeting after Shanghai where the heads of state of 16 countries and observers from five countries will meet. After the meeting we agreed to stop in Baikonur where Kazakhstan’s first satellite will be launched from a Russian launch pad. A second satellite is being prepared. We have big plans for cooperating in the space sector in the future. In Kazakhstan we are building a new platform, Baiterek, for a new more environmentally-friendly rocket that will be built in Russia.
This autumn the traditional meeting between governors of border regions will take place as agreed in Chelyabinsk. Today, Vladimir Vladimirovich, we are meeting for the fourth time and we always have issues to discuss. When you invited me here I thought that perhaps we shall relax a bit, rest a little. I see that it is necessary to work the whole time. Especially issues which concern trade between the two countries and that have taken on great importance are progressing very well. There is an important agreement between our transport departments, especially the railway departments. For the first time we agreed on container transport from the Pacific Ocean through China and Kazakhstan to Russia and Europe. We agreed on the tariffs within the customs union for various cargoes: coal for Russia, grain for Belarus and other cargoes that increase transit loads through Russia by three million tonnes, providing aditional payments for Russia and greatly increasing our trade this year. There are ten billion dollars of trade between Russia and Kazakhstan. I think that very soon we will increase this amount two-fold because concrete work will take place on the new deposit in the northern Caspian – Kurmangazy. According to recent predictions, this deposit contains one billion tonnes of oil. This is a 50 – 50 joint venture. There are still two joint deposits which are allowing our mutual relations to reach a new level.
We cooperate very closely within the Collective Security Treaty Organization and address issues concerning military technology cooperation. 2,200 young Kazakhstani officers were trained in the higher military academies of the Russian Federation.
Today 16,000 young people from Kazakhstan are studying at Russian universities. I consider that the Year of Abai in Russia and the Year of Pushkin in Kazakhstan will provide us with important opportunities to bring our intelligentsia closer together. I know that you met with youth here. Improving communications between the youth of our countries and ties in the cultural and educational spheres will ensure that our peoples and states grow closer together. Thank you.