ASTANA (Sputnik) – The presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will meet in Astana on March 20, Novosti Kazakhstan reported Monday, citing Kazakh Presidential Press Secretary Dauren Abayev.
The trilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, scheduled for March 13 in Kazakhstan’s capital, was postponed last week “because of the tight schedules” of the three leaders.
Earlier, the Kremlin press service said the almost year-long armed conflict in eastern Ukraine would be one of the issues on the agenda of the meeting.
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are long-time economic partners and founding members of the Eurasian Economic Union, a bloc established to enable the free flow of goods, capital and labor between the member nations.
The union came into force on January 1, 2015, with Armenia joining the next day. The accession of the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan is pending.