Omsk Hosting Meeting between Russian and Kazakh Presidents

The Hall of the Omsk Administration (the Siberian Federal District) is hosting a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

At the beginning of the meeting the Russian President stressed that heads of regions, heads of transportation and energy departments are participating in today's cross-border co-operation forum. Vladimir Putin emphasised that the forum was extremely important. According to the Russian president, it will not only contribute to the development of co-operation and the implementation of the agreements, but will make it possible to establish new contacts between both Russia's and Kazakhstan's regions. Vladimir Putin pointed out that cross-border co-operation accounted for 60 percent of bilateral turnover.

The Kazakh president also stressed the importance of the forum and pointed out that its participants "had worked fruitfully." He said that 72 regions were involved in cross-border co-operation.

Before the meeting, Vladimir Putin spoke with Omsk residents at the administration building.