ORENBURG, September 11 (RIA Novosti) - The presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan met on Friday on the sidelines of a regional forum in the Urals city of Orenburg dominated by bilateral energy projects.
Dmitry Medvedev confirmed plans for a joint nuclear power venture, which the two countries had announced at a 2008 summit in Astana.
He also urged for more active contacts within the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which runs a pipeline pumping Kazakh and Russian crude to a Russian terminal on the Black Sea. In 2008, CPC transported 31.5 million metric tons of oil, down from 32.6 million in 2007. In January-March 2009, the pipeline transported 8.7 million tons of crude.
Medvedev called for broader energy cooperation with Kazakhstan, including in the modernization of both states' ageing Soviet-era pipeline, rail and motorway infrastructure.
At a ceremony attended by the presidents, the two countries' energy ministers signed an agreement to build the third unit of the Ikibastuz plant, one of the Central Asian state's five hydropower facilities producing about 14% of the country's electricity.
Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev said cooperation at more hydropower facilities was planned.
Russia and Kazakhstan, which along with Belarus are working to establish a customs union, also signed agreements on customs and military cooperation on the sidelines of the forum.
Medvedev also urged for the integration of Siberia's power grid with that of Kazakhstan following the August 17 accident at a Siberian power plant that killed at least 74 people and led to the closure of the station, the country's largest hydropower producer.
"After the tragic accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant, integrating Siberia's power grids into European systems via Kazakhstan, and increasing electricity supplies through Urals-Kazakhstan-Siberia [grids] have become particularly important tasks," Medvedev said at the forum.
President Nazarbayev suggested supplying some 500 MW of electricity to offset for shortages caused by the closure of the Sayano-Shushenskaya station.
