According to Yakovenko, representatives of the Foreign Ministries of Russia and Kazakhstan pay close attention in their contacts to the issues of expanding trade and economic cooperation. According to information of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Kazakhstan is among Russia's top ten foreign trade partners. Bilateral trade was estimated to exceed $5 billion in 2003, with border trade accounting for 60 per cent of this amount.
Cooperation in the military and military-technical fields holds a special place in bilateral relations. The parties are looking for mutually acceptable forms of interaction in the field of outer space exploration and the efficient use of the Baikonur space center for these purposes, Yakovenko said.
He stressed that Russia and Kazakhstan paid close attention to their efforts of intensifying integration processes within the Commonwealth of Independent States and other organizations involving former Soviet republics: the Eurasian Economic Community, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and within the framework of the emerging single economic space of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Russia and Kazakhstan paid special attention in their relations to the issues of stability and security in the Central Asian region, the struggle against international terrorism and the drug threat, and also the issues of settling the status of the Caspian Sea.
