Kyrgyzstan committed to joining Customs Union

Kyrgyzstan is committed to joining the Customs Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan), President Almazbek Atambayev said. In an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass on Friday, Atambayev said: “Kyrgyzstan is committed to joining the Customs Union. But this depends on the Customs Union members: three states should take a decision.” “I won’t hide we’d like to hope for the attitude that the three countries show to each other while creating the Customs Union. At that time certain preferences have been made to Belarus and Kazakhstan and we hope for the same attitude to make our accession beneficial,” the Kyrgyz president said. He stressed, “Most citizens believe that we should live in the common economic space with the brotherly peoples of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.” “This is the reality and even the necessity,” the president said. He expressed hope that the working group for Kyrgyzstan’s accession to the Customs Union would prepare a roadmap for the autumn. Thus, Kyrgyzstan will become a member of the Customs Union by the end of the year, the Kyrgyz president said. He cited the wording, “Those who seek to restore the Soviet Union has no reason and those who complaints of the Soviet Union has no soul or heart”. At the same time, Atambayev stressed: “We won’t restore the Soviet Union and there is no need to do this. But it would be necessary to restore the common economic space to allow people to communicate. In principle, the future of any regions is to remove all barriers. Of course, we should avoid words ‘border’ or ‘customs’ if the independence is preserved.” Commenting on Kyrgyzstan’s participation in international structures, Atambayev said the CIS continued to carry out the task for preserving the common economic and cultural space. On the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, he said, “This is the new organisation, which is growing rapidly.” “We’d like more attention to be riveted to economics. Kyrgyzstan wants the SCO to have its own bank and development fund,” the president said. He expressed confidence that the SCO should follow this way and focus on security in Afghanistan. “This autumn we want to organise a big conference on Afghanistan with the participation of SCO members and observers,” Atambayev said. The Kyrgyz president’s full interview will be broadcast on Rossiya 24 Channel on Friday, April 12.