Building relationships with Russia is like constructing a skyscraper: Nazarbayev

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has compared development of the Kazakhstan-Russia relations with construction of a skyscraper with every meeting and signed agreement being an advance to a new level, Tengrinews reports. "The progress in development of the bilateral relations may be compared to construction of a skyscraper. Every meeting and every signed agreement enable us to add new storeys to our high-tech house," Nursultan Nazarbeyev's written message to the 10th Forum of Interregional Cooperation of Kazakhstan and Russia says. "There is no closer country to Russian than Kazakhstan, and vice versa. It has been proven by time," the President of Kazakhstan adds. He points out that Russia is actively assisting in the innovative industrialization of the Kazakhstan economy and adds that Ural-based enterprisers are welcome to place their production facilities in Kazakhstan's free economic zones. President of Russia Vladimir Putin is also calling the bordering regions of the two countries to make use of the available opportunities. "The regions of Russian and Kazakhstan should maximize the use of all the progress that we have achieved (through creation of the Costumes Union) and all the newly created conditions for development, to gain a real progress in the long-term projects that are of importance for both countries," Putin says. The 10th Forum of the Interregional Cooperation of Kazakhstan and Russia is taking place in Yekaterinburg. Nazarbayev and Putin met at the plenary session of the forum earlier today on November 11. They are also expected to sign several bilateral documents, including the Treaty on Good-Neighborliness and Alliance in the 21 Century. Earlier the same day enterprises of the two countries signed several agreements on joint productions, in particular, in Yekaterinburg. By Renat Tashkinbayev