“Over the past years, we have been working to complete the large-scale road corridor project, Western Europe – Western China. I am sure that with the completion of work, Kazakhstan and Russia will be able to fully realize the transit potential,” Smailov told the 21st meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia.

Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov took part in the event.

The parties discussed a wide range of issues of trade and economic cooperation. Russia is the main trading partner of Kazakhstan – 19.5% in the foreign trade turnover of Kazakhstan.

In 2018, the volume of mutual trade between Kazakhstan and the Russia amounted to $18.5 billion, which is 13.1% higher than in 2017 ($16.4 billion). According to the results of 8 months of this year, the volume of mutual trade between the two countries increased by 0.8% and amounted to $12.2 billion (8 months of 2018 – $12.1 billion).

The next 22nd meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission will be held in 2020 in Russia.