ST. PETERSBURG, June 10 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan's president proposed Sunday setting up a forum to coordinate policies of the European Union and the post-Soviet alliance.
Speaking at a major economic forum in Russia's second city, St. Petersburg, Nursultan Nazarbayev said the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) needed to step up integration with the EU: "An EU-CIS forum could become an organizational basis for this approach."
The leader of the oil-rich Central Asian state, which aspires to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2009, said the forum could encourage dialogue and help coordinate integration between the CIS and the EU.
The OSCE has postponed a decision on whether to give Kazakhstan the chair over concerns about the country's democratic record.
