Kazakh president: trade with Russia reaches record $20 bln

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev praised on Monday his country’s relations with Russia, saying that bilateral trade has reached $20 billion. “For the first time in our 20-year history of independence we have reached a trade [with Russia] of $20 billion, which is a huge figure for Kazakhstan,” Nazarbayev said after his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow. Medvedev said that Russia’s relations with Kazakhstan “are developing ideally, but there are always issues for talks and there are always particular economic nuances.” The presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus gathered for a summit on Monday to discuss the three countries' integration within a common economic space and the Eurasian Economic Community, a post-Soviet economic bloc intended to promote cooperation both with Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. In November, Medvedev, Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a declaration on Eurasian economic integration and a roadmap of integration processes aimed at creating a Eurasian Economic Union.