Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev regards it extremely pressing to form a Central Asian Economic Union which will help to integrate peoples, having common culture and traditions, Itar-Tass reported on 13 September.

“A new regional organization will help to open borders for free movement of people and goods as well as will boost the economy of countries in the region,” he emphasized on Thursday in Dushanbe at a news conference on the results of the talks, which was held jointly with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon.

According to Nazarbayev, “creation of a Central Asian Economic Union will not be at variance with other entities over the CIS space”.

The Kazakh president is firmly convinced that the region with a population of 55 million is capable of providing itself fully with milk, meat, grain and cotton. “There is no need for every country to produce everything on its own provided there is real integration,” he said, noting that Tajikistan, for instance, could grow more cotton, since the republic does it well” and to sell it to Kazakhstan.

In Rakhmon’s words, “the idea of forming such a Union is warmly backed by Tajikistan”.

Nazarbayev had voiced for the first time an idea of forming a Central Asian Economic Union in February 2005 in his message to the two chambers of the national parliament. The initiative was approved by Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev.

“All will only benefit by such a union which will unite Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan where there will be close cooperation in the economic and political spheres as well as in ensuring security,” Bakiev said last April during the visit by the Kazakh president to Bishkek.