Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 2 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova /
Kyrgyzstan is the country that will fail to survive alone in economic sphere. So, Bishkek strives to join the Customs Union, which will include Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Russian expert at the German Council of Foreign Relations, the Russia-Eurasia Center director, Alexander Rahr, said.
Kyrgyzstan is considering joining the Customs Union, established by Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which should launch its work from January 1, 2010, the heads of Kazakh and Kyrgyz governments, Karim Massimov and Daniyar Usenov said on the basis of the bilateral talks in Astana.
Usenov said that the Kyrgyz government has been already charged to promptly work out the possibilities of Kyrgyzstan's entry in the Customs Union.
"Kyrgyzstan's membership in the WTO allows it. I think that enlargement of the Union at the expense of our country will be benefitial for Kyrgyzstan. The access to a huge market of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will sure to positively affect the interests of the Kyrgyz Republic", Usenov said.
"Kyrgyzstan is a country that will fail to survive alone economically. It has strongly linked its economy with Kazakhstan for the last 15 years," Rahr said phone from Berlin.
The expert said that the Kyrgyz leadership understands that if Astana turns to Russia and Belarus and the borders of the Customs Union between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan close, the situation inside the country will rather aggravate.
Rahr said that establishment of the Customs Union has a political subtext.
"I can not imagine that this alliance was being built on economic grounds. It is not so," the politician said.
He said that it is one of many new models, which have been invented over the last 20 years, to start any integration in the former Soviet Union.