Kazakhstan rejects Belarus’ offer to join union state with Russia

ISTANBUL

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday said he rejected Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s offer for Kazakhstan to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus.

“One of these days, the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko offered Kazakhstan to join the Union State. I appreciated his joke. I think that there is no need for this since there are other integration associations, first of all, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU),” Tokayev said at a meeting with agricultural producers during a visit to the North Kazakhstan region.

Tokayev said he also refuted Kazakhstan’s need for nuclear weapons based on the country’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as well as the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

“We remain true to our commitments under these international instruments. I think that cooperation in this vast Eurasian region, or, as they say now, Greater Eurasia, should develop in the economic direction, in which we are all interested. We need to create a real common market,” he further said.

The North Kazakhstan region occupies “a strategic position on the border with the Russian Federation,” Tokayev said, adding that Astana is constantly negotiating both within the EAEU (…) and at the bilateral level “in terms of ensuring unhindered trade and the exchange of goods.”

The Kazakh leader also recalled that a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council took place in Moscow last Thursday, where he said the need to deal with issues of economic cooperation, integration, and cooperation was discussed.

Russia and Belarus are formally part of a union state and have been in talks for years to move closer together, a process that has accelerated in recent years.