Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that international trade is in crisis and Moscow is reorienting its exports and imports to new markets during a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
"Over the past year, the trade turnover between Russia and Kazakhstan has grown by almost 35%," Putin said, addressing a forum on interregional cooperation alongside Tokayev, who arrived in the country's capital Moscow on his first official visit since being re-elected as his country's president last week for a new seven-year term.
Putin noted that Russia remains one of the largest investors in the Kazakh economy, with the volume of capital investments amounting to almost $17 billion, and that 76 out of 89 constituent entities of Russia have established direct trade and economic ties with Kazakh partners.
"More than 30 major investment projects are being implemented jointly in all key sectors of the economy," Putin also said.
For his part, Tokayev said Russia and Kazakhstan were able to build "mutually beneficial economic cooperation."
"Last year, the volume of trade between our countries reached a new record high of $24.5 billion," Tokayev expressed, adding that "supplies from Kazakhstan to the Russian regions increased two-and-a-half times."
Tokayev also urged the two countries to accelerate the modernization of their supply chains.
Putin was among various regional leaders who congratulated Tokayev for his election victory, where he received 81.31% of the votes, which amounts to about 6.45 million out of around 12 million eligible voters.
The voter turnout was 69.4% in the election, as nearly 8.3 million voters cast their ballots.
