"The two integration associations are not mutually exclusive, each of them is developing in its own way," Mr. Nazarbayev said, addressing the international forum "Eurasian Integration: Tendencies in Modern Development and Challenges of Globalization" in Astana on Friday.
"Their development, as it seems to me, fits organically in the thesis of a multi-level integration at different speeds within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States," Mr. Nazarbayev said.
According to him, "presently, the Eurasec is a viable and developing organization of cooperation between the Eurasian Group of Five Countries. We still have some reasons to be dissatisfied with our Eurasian community because we are slowly solving the problems that must be solved.
"Last year, the countries that were most similar in their economic potential - Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine - started forming a Common Economic Space. We began our work by determining the prospects of joint economic development." Mr. Nazarbayev added that "this is a very important peculiarity for a new organization."
"The future of the organization depends, in many respects on the activity of the entrepreneurial structures of our states," he stressed.
At the same time, Mr. Nazarbayev said that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) had "a great future." He also said, "we have started forming a common market within the framework of the Central Asian Cooperation Organization. All of these processes are aimed at improving regional integration."
Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are members of Eurasec.
On February 28, 2002 at a summit attended by four leaders of Central Asian states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - a treaty on instituting Central Asian cooperation was signed. The organization was formed on the basis of the defunct Central Asian Economic Community.
At the end of May, Mr. Nazarbayev announced that Russia would join the treaty on instituting Central Asian cooperation.
