ASTANA, October 8 (Itar-Tass) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev considers the creation of the Customs Union with Russia and Belarus a response to the global financial crisis.
“In fact the crisis has not subsided after it began in 2007-2008 and it is continuing now. This means that the global erosion, let’s say, of western values is spreading and we should speak even more about the erosion of society that greedily collected wealth and got easy loans. The time has come, when this bubble blew up,” he said in an interview with Kazakhstan’s Channel One on Monday.
“Therefore the Customs Union, the Common Economic Space and movement towards the economic union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are the answer and the way out of the situation in our conditions,” he said.
“Southeast Asia, Vietnam request the Customs Unions for signing a cooperation treaty. Other countries also want this. Now Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan want this,” Nazarbayev said.
Along with this he emphasized that to join the Customs Union countries should meet certain requirements.
“We’ve created a supranational body. Any country that wishes to join can do this, because our organization is open. But this country should pass along the road we’ve already passed,” he said.