Kazakh, Russian FMs visit one of leading industrial centers of Kazakhstan

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov embarked on a visit to Kazakhstan on Aug.6.

The visit is being held in one of the industrial centers of Kazakhstan - Ust-Kamenogorsk city, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said, azh.zk refers to trend.az.

Lavrov visited a number of enterprises, including Asia Auto JSC, as well as the Ulba Metallurgical Plant of Kazatomprom national atomic company in Ust-Kamenogorsk. The guest also visited Russia's Consulate General in Ust-Kamenogorsk and the Cathedral of St. Andrew.

During the visit, Lavrov held a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Erlan Idrisov and discussed the bilateral cooperation issues in political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres, cooperation in international institutions, as well as topical issues of the international agenda.

The two sides discussed various aspects of ensuring stability and security in Central Asia, Ukraine and the Middle East.

During the talks, the foreign ministers also discussed the practical steps to strengthen the relations between Kazakhstan and Russia within the interregional and cross-border cooperation, as well as collaboration in industrial, fuel, energy, atomic spheres and monitoring the implementation of the joint action plan for 2013-2015.

Talking about the upcoming fourth summit of the Caspian Sea countries in Astrakhan, they were mainly focused on the Caspian Sea issues, as well as further development of the cross-border contacts in the oil and gas sphere.

The two sides also discussed the cooperation within the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space and emphasized the significance of the agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union signed by the heads of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia in Astana.

Moreover, the foreign ministers were focused on cooperation in CIS, Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and agreed to coordinate their activities in such international organizations as UN, OSCE, SCO and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

"Given the significance of the cross-border cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia, which accounts for about 70 percent of the bilateral turnover, the visit to one of the largest industrial centers of Kazakhstan (Ust-Kamenogorsk) is of symbolic nature. This visit gave opportunity to see the results of the hard work of the two countries to further strengthen their relations in trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres," Idrisov stressed following the meeting.