Events

 
 
 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets with Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov

 
 
 

“We see each other as important partners, and our partnership is not limited to the energy sector. In fact, we’re now gravitating more and more toward high-tech sectors,” the Russian prime minister said at the meeting.

Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Massimov, let me thank you once again for your initiatives and for your contribution to the efforts to translate our integration plans into reality.

No doubt Kazakhstan is the driving force behind all such projects. The president of Kazakhstan has been the mastermind of many of these. We've made great progress over the past few years at the governmental level, which is hardly surprising, given the professionalism of our expert teams. Our bilateral relations continue advancing successfully.

We undoubtedly see each other as important partners, and our partnership is not limited to the energy sector. In fact, we're now gravitating more and more toward high-tech sectors, furthering space exploration projects launched in previous years and decades, integrating our science institutions, developing cooperation in mechanical engineering, nanotechnology and other sectors. We are very pleased with the progress. I would like to thank you and your team for your commitment.

Karim Massimov: Thank you, Mr Putin. I think the past two days have been highly productive and that they will benefit our bilateral partnership as well as post-Soviet integration at large.

Your joint efforts with Mr Nazarbayev in the past eight years have created a solid foundation for the relations between Russia and Kazakhstan. Thanks to your personal involvement, all the related objectives you had set for your government have been met. Through your efforts as Russia's prime minister, the level of trust between the governments of our two countries has helped address many issues in bilateral relations and in integration.

As I said earlier, I believe that the decision you made at the Customs Union prime ministerial Council was a key step. It set the whole mechanism in motion. I believe that your work in the government has raised the level of the prime ministerial councils of all our post-Soviet alliances, including the CIS, the Eurasian Union and the Customs Union.

I have been involved for quite a while now, since 2002, to be precise, when you and Mr Nazarbayev delegated day-to-day project coordination to your respective deputy prime ministers. So I think I can adequately assess the potential of these projects.

I hope the prime ministerial council meets again next year, in May or June, and that it will work as productively [as it did in the past two days], thanks in no small measure to your efforts.

Vladimir Putin: We'll carry on, yes. You're right that's a key institution. Here, government decisions are drafted and adopted, to be then submitted to the heads of state. A very important tool, indeed. It has stepped up its activity in recent years, producing tangible results.

So we'll continue down this road, drawing on our joint achievements.

Thank you very much indeed.

Адрес страницы в сети интернет: http://archive.government.ru/eng/docs/16788/