"During the talks in the Kremlin between the presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia, they talked about creating a 'tripartite gas union' consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan in order to coordinate actions in the transportation of Russian gas through the territories of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan," Zheldibay wrote on social media.
"What President Putin has in mind is the creation of a coordination mechanism at the first stage. Maybe, of course, this is yet to be discussed, with a certain legal entity. For cooperation between these three countries and for the development of infrastructure, then for foreign markets," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are developing their economies quite rapidly, and their domestic gas needs are growing, and besides, both countries also trade on foreign markets. Russia also trades on foreign markets, so it requires some synchronization. Moreover, there is another important element. Russia and Kazakhstan, as a partnership in the EAEU [Eurasian Economic Union], also have certain plans for the development of this industry. And in the future, there are plans to create common energy markets," Peskov said.
"And we, in turn, are developing a new province in eastern Siberia. This is both for export and for their regions," he added.