Kazakhstan will exit any alliance that might impair the country’s independence and sovereignty: Nazarbayev

Kazakhstan will exit any alliance that might impair the country’s independence and sovereignty, Newskaz.ru reports, citing the country’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying April 25. “When abroad we are often asked what the Eurasian Union is about (…) there are rumors of Russia reportedly restoring its empire, the USSR (…) such statements are absurd. I want to make it clear for everyone that Kazakhstan’s people have savored the taste of independence and we are not going to lose an inch of it. If some alliance impairs our independence, the country’s Constitution, we will immediately quit the alliance. The Eurasian Union is exclusively about economic integration”, President Nazarbayev said when speaking at the Eurasian media forum in Astana April 25. He elaborated that the economic alliance unites post-soviet states that have been linked with transport arteries and human ties: “there is no language barrier, our economies have been interlaced for ages; such integration enables us to survive in stiff competition”, he said. President added that the Eurasian Union is open to other states to join. “A potential member state shall pass the whole package of documents we have passed (…) just as in case of the European Union (…) as of today there are some nations willing to access the Eurasian Union or cooperate with the Customs Union”, according to Mr. Nazarbayev. He is confident that the “organization is posed to grow”. “Integration is not a stiff process. As practice shows in the European Union, there are some issues to be revealed”.