Russian media reports say President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev yesterday at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin spoke about the proposal of Russian President Vladimir Putin to create a trilateral union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, including resolving issues in the gas sector.
“Today Vladimir Vladimirovich spoke about the need to create some kind of trilateral union, and he is going to call the President of Uzbekistan. We also need to delve into this topic, at least for me, not to mention our specialists, in order to come to the desired result and agreement. Why not,” Tokayev was cited as saying by Interfax.
Kazakh president reportedly expressed confidence that relevant agreements will be reached.
Tokayev, however, noted that there are issues that require additional coordination and even negotiations; “in particular, we are talking about the gas sector.”
The President of Kazakhstan reportedly arrived in Russia on an official visit. Tokayev and Putin previously signed a declaration on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in June refused to support Russia’s position with the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and, in the presence of Putin at a forum in St. Petersburg, called the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) quasi-state territories.
Prior to this, Kazakh political scientist Yerbol Yedilov, citing his own sources, said that the Kremlin was going to award Tokayev with the Order of Alexander Nevsky, but Tokayev decided not to accept either domestic or foreign awards until the end of his presidential term. At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Tokayev’s refusal from the Russian order. According to him, no award was planned.
