Nazarbayev meets Manmohan Singh, seeks views on creation of SCO single currency

Yekaterinburg (Russia), June 16 (ANI): Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev met Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh here on the sidelines of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, and is believed to have discussed progress in bilateral ties and sought India's views for the creation of a supranational currency for mutual exchanges within the SCO.

Earlier at the sitting of the Council of the SCO member states' heads, Nazarbayev said: "With the purpose of effective use of the SCO member states' economic potential I support the proposal of the Russian President (Dmitri Medvedev)."

He suggested studying the opportunity of introduction of a common supranational currency.

"It could be used in trade-economic settlements between the SCO tates", he noted

During his interaction with Prime Minister Singh, President Nazarbayev said that he was very satisfied with the results of his visit to India in January this year.

"We reached agreements on different sectors of economy", Nazarbayev said, before he went with Singh inside to hold further talks behind closed doors.

It maybe recalled that documents were signed between the two countries in fields such as nuclear energy, information technology etc. Both sides also expressed a readiness to develop a strategic partnership.

The fact that Kazakhstan and India had signed five agreements, including one to cooperate in the field of civil nuclear energy today, Nazarbayev had said then, suggested that the potential for cooperation between the two countries was largely untapped, and therefore, the scope for bilateral business-to-business activity was huge.

He had also then emphasized that levels of cooperation should go beyond traditional items like oil and gas, and move into areas like textiles, agriculture, information technology, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, metallurgy and dairy goods etc.

It was laudable that both countries have also been able to reach agreements on promoting cooperation in space and hydrocarbons, besides inking an extradition treaty and a protocol on accession of Kazakhstan to the WTO.

Kazakhstan cooperates with India within the CICA, the SCO and the UN. (ANI)