ASTANA, April 14. /TASS/. Issues of regional security were the focus of a meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and Central Asian countries in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, the press service of the Kazakh foreign ministry said on Friday.

"The foreign ministers discussed the current state of and prospects for the development of six-party cooperation and exchanged views on topical matters on the regional and international agenda. Special attention was paid to issues of regional security in Central Asia," it said.

According to the Kazakh foreign ministry, the top diplomats expressed readiness to focus efforts on strategically important areas of multilateral cooperation, as well as expand economic and inter-regional cooperation. "Key attention was paid to the need to develop intra-regional trade, improve trade turnover and expand its nomenclature, launch joint projects in the manufacturing, transportation and logistics sectors, and agriculture," it said.

Kazakhstan was represented by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Murat Nurtleu.