May 25, 2023 - 14:15 AMT
Tokayev singles out Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia within EAEU integration

President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev delivered remarks at a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Forum in Moscow on Thursday, May 25 and declared that within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) there is a union state comprised of Russia and Belarus, but there is also “another level of integration” represented by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, Meduza reports.

“We have a union state in the EAEU, which means a unique precedent has been created in world political history, or a phenomenon, as you wish, the creation of a state according to the formula“ two countries - one state ”with a single political, legal, military, economic, monetary, cultural , humanitarian space. With a single union government, with a single union parliament, and, dare I say, even nuclear weapons are one for two now,” Tokayev said.

At the same time, the Kazakh President noted that the EAEU also has “another level of integration” represented by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.

“We have to deal with this reality. How we will work in these conditions is a conceptual question. I think we need to discuss this problem,” he concluded.

In the summer of 2022, speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Tokayev called the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR “quasi-state territories”, and also added that Kazakhstan does not recognize their independence, just as it does not recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.