Lukashenko, Nazarbayev to meet in Astana on 4 October

ASTANA, 4 October (BelTA) – Presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev will hold talks in Astana on 4 October. The Belarusian leader arrived in Kazakhstan on an official visit on 3 October, BelTA has learnt.

It is expected that the high-level meeting will highlight bilateral trade, economic, political and humanitarian relations between Belarus and Kazakhstan as well as multilateral cooperation including coordination of efforts towards Eurasian integration. The parties are due to sign a number of bilateral documents.

The two presidents will visit the Belarusian-Kazakh center for training and retraining engineers under the S.Seifullin Kazakh Agro Technical University. The center is designed to help synchronize processes of production and sci-tech cooperation, develop a system based on Belarusian science to train engineering staff for Kazakh’s agricultural sector.

In export terms Kazakhstan ranks third among Belarus’ trade partners in the Commonwealth of Independent States after Russia and Ukraine. Belarus views Kazakhstan as a platform for stepping up export to Central Asia.

The main document making foundation for practical development of bilateral relations is the program on economic cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Kazakhstan slated for implementation in 2009-2016. At the tenth meeting of the intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation in Grodno in August 2013 the parties took stock of the progress made in the implementation of the roadmap on bilateral trade and economic cooperation development in 2012-2013, considered the draft roadmap for the next three-year period.

The two countries are currently implementing 13 joint projects. Seven of them are included into Kazakhstani state programs.

In January-July 2013 Belarus-Kazakhstan trade exceeded $500 million, with Belarus’ export at nearly $460 million. Belarus’ major exports to Kazakhstan are machines and mechanisms for harvesting and threshing, tractors and truck tractors, tires, milk and dairy products, furniture, trucks, wooden goods, meat and derivatives, sugar, plastic goods, medications.