Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has called on neighboring Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to join a new regional economic body linking Turkic-speaking countries, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
The Business Council of Turkic Speaking States was established on October 20, at the start of the first two-day summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (CCTS) in Almaty.
Nazarbaev, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva, and Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag discussed how to promote cooperation between the CCTS's four member-states.
All four officials signed the document on creating the business council, the twin objectives of which are to seek new directions for deeper cooperation and to eliminate existing impediments and obstacles in mutual trade and economic ties.
Speaking on October 21, Nazarbaev said that "we are all interested in being a full-fledged international organization and we really hope that our Uzbek and Turkmen brothers will join us some day."
Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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