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Putin and Nazarbayev to discuss bilateral ties and EAEU integration

Four interregional agreements on cooperation are expected to be signed at the forum

MOSCOW, September 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will devote his working day to the problems of integration in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and issues of developing cooperation with Kazakhstan. The Russian leader will hold negotiations with his Kazakhstani counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in Sochi on Wednesday. Putin and Nazarbayev will also take part in the XII Interregional Cooperation Forum between the two countries.

"While in Sochi, the presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan will hold a separate meeting where they will focus on integration issues in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union that was launched on 1 January 2015," presidential aide Yury Ushakov told journalists earlier. "It is also planned to discuss pressing issues of bilateral cooperation and several regional and international problems," he added. "Possibilities to boost ties in agriculture will be discussed separately, along with increasing mutual supplies of agriculture produce, establishing new food supply chains and import substitution for goods from this groups," Ushakov noted.

Cooperation in agriculture and food security will be on top of the agenda at the forum as well. Ushakov reminded that agriculture and food constitute less than nine percent ($1.9 billion) in total trade turnover between Russia and Kazakhstan. However, there are also successful examples of mutually beneficial cooperation - establishing assembly production of agricultural machinery on the Kazakhstani territory (Rostselmach and Machinery and Industrial Group N.V.) and joint production of fertilizers.

Four interregional agreements on cooperation are expected to be signed at the forum. Kazakhstan’s Pavlodar Region will strike an agreement on cooperation with Russia’s Omsk Region and Udmurtiya, Kazakhstan’s Aktobe Region - with Russia’s Ulyanovsk Region, and West Kazakhstani Region - with the Volgograd Region. Several contracts are also expected to be signed between the business circles of the two countries.

Exhibition "Prospects of Russian-Kazakhstani cooperation in agriculture" will be organized in the framework of the forum. The Business Council on Border Cooperation between the two countries and 3rd Youth Economic Forum will also take place there.

Russia and Kazakhstan hold Interregional Cooperation Forums since 2003 annually. The first meeting in such format took place in 20013 in Russia’s Omsk, the last - in 2014 in Kazakhstan’s Atyrau. Around 80 Russian federal subjects and all Kazakhstan’s regions are involved in bilateral cooperation at the moment.