Belarus to back all Astana's initiatives at OSCE-Lukashenko.

26/11 Tass 210

MINSK, November 26 (Itar-Tass) - Belarus will back all Astana's
initiatives during Kazakhstan's presidency in the OSCE, said on Thursday
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting with his Kazakh
counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The Kazakh president arrived in Minsk on an official visit. "We are
glad that a CIS country will preside at the OSCE for the first time (Eds:
in 2010)," Lukashenko said. "It's high time to get together in the OSCE at
the top level to discuss pressing issues of the international agenda," he
added.
Lukashenko called attention to the fact that the current visit of the
Kazakh president is especially packed with events. "Experts and the
government worked on Wednesday very well". They drafted several projects,
he continued. Lukashenko also emphasised that the two countries had
achieved a high level of cooperation.
Nazarbayev said Belarus and Kazakhstan had no outstanding problems.
"This visit is especially significant; we have made impressive preparation
for it," the Kazakh leader noted. He underlined that the two countries had
hammered out a strategy of cooperation till 2012.
The strategy provides for work on 37 joint projects: the two countries
will cooperate in the chemical industry and the agro-industrial sphere.
"We shall create powerful joint production facilities with a great export
potential"; military cooperation was also mapped out," the Kazakh head of
state continued.
He also noted that "a historic event", connected with the
establishment of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia,
would take place in Minsk on Friday. "The aim is not only to establish the
Customs Union, but also to switch over to a common economic space,"
Nazarbayev stated.
A meeting of the Interstate Council of the Euro-Asian Economic
Community at the level of the heads of state will be held in Minsk on
Friday. It is planned that the Russian, Belarussian and Kazakh presidents
will sign documents on the start of functioning the Customs Union.
-0-bur/gor