Nazarbayev calls for development of communications between Turkic Council's member-states

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has called for development of communications between the member countries of the Cooperation Council of the Turkic Speaking States (CCTS), Tengrinews.kz reports citing the President’s official website. According to him, transport and communications have to become one of the bases for development of the countries' economic interaction. “We support the idea of holding the first meeting of the ministers of transport and communications,” he said. Nazarbayev reminded at the 3rd CCTS summit in Azerbaijan that a Chunxin-Duisburg container train was launched jointly with Russia, China and Germany. The train cruises from China to Germany via Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan plans to launch more air, sea and car routes and pipelines that will connect Europe with the Pacific coast via Kazakhstan, the President added. “This May we officially connected Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan parts of Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railroad. We are now awaiting the launch of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad. The multimodal transport project of launching a container train along the TRACEKA (Transport Corridor Europe Caucasus Asia) international transport corridor is also important. To further increase the mutual commodities turnover and the transport potential, we have to develop our relations in the customs sector. That requires efficient application of the international standards and advanced technologies,” Kazakhstan President said. Nazarbayev pointed out that the volume of freights via Kazakhstan would double by 2020 and will increase 10-fold by 2050. The President told about the project to expand the seaport in Aktau that provides access to the Caspian Sea and Russia. Besides, Kazakhstan plans to build Western Europe-Western China railroad. President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan called to deepen interaction in transport and communications, education, science and culture among the countries. Nazarbayev also suggested to establish a work group for development of tourism in the CCTS. The Declaration of the 3rd CCTS summit was signed at the end of the meeting. The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States was established in 2009. It includes the Council of Presidents, the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Council of Aksakals (the elders). There are six Turkic speaking countries: Kazakhstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan. Four of them - Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan - are members of the Council. The first summit was held in 2011 in Almaty following the initiative of Kazakhstan President. The summit covered economic cooperation and resulted in signing of the Almaty Declaration.