NUR-SULTAN, August 19. /TASS/. Kazakhstan’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev offered the creation of joint ventures in the defense industry at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Thursday.

"Concerning the future expansion of closer ties, it is necessary to develop joint ventures, particularly in the defense industry, even more. The territory is there, you face an overabundance of all that — let’s partially [move] it there, we will produce both for Russia and for ourselves, develop industry," Nazarbayev said.

He also suggested that industrial cooperation with Russia should be expanded amid the western countries’ sanctions.

Moreover, Kazakhstan’s first president, as an honorary chairman of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, urged to increase the number of member-states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). "We should fortify the organization. It is necessary to make sure that others are also here - our neighbors Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, we should also work with the Turkmen," he said.

The EAEU is an international integration economic union. Its member states are Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Moldova, Cuba and Uzbekistan are EAEU observer states.