ASTANA, May 28. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Kazakhstan will continue on Thursday, with all key protocol events being planned for this day.
After the official welcoming ceremony at the Independence Palace, the countries’ delegations will hold talks that will be crowned by signing documents, including a joint statement on friendship. After that, the leaders will talk to the press and take part in a tree planting ceremony in the Alley of Eternal Friendship.
According to Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, after the talks, the two countries’ presidents will watch video presentations of the achievements of the Russian-Kazakhs partnership.
The state visit will conclude with a state reception in honor of Vladimir Putin, hosted by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. However, the day’s official agenda will not end there--the Russian and Kazakh leaders will move on to discuss Eurasian integration, and they will be joined by their colleagues from the Eurasian Economic Union.
AI in Eurasia
In the evening, the Russian leader, along with his EAEU colleagues, with the exception of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is skipping the event due to the election campaign in his country, will take part in the 5th Eurasian Economic Forum. The forum's central theme is "The EAEU in the Global Digital Race: Betting on Artificial Intelligence."
Putin will speak at the forum. His speech will focus on the current level of digitalization and artificial intelligence development, as well as prospect for the development of these technologies in the EAEU. He will also share Russia’s experience in this area.
The forum will conclude with a joint statement by the EAEU leaders.
After the protocol part of Putin’s visit is over, the Russian leader will remain in the republic, focusing entirely on Eurasian topics. Thus, according to the Kremlin, one of the central topics of subsequent meetings will be Armenia’s participation in the EAEU in the wake of Yerevan’s decision to seek integration with the European Union, which is incompatible with the participation in the Eurasian integration as no country can be a member of both the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union simultaneously.