ASTANA, Azerbaijan, June 26. Last year, the volume of mutual trade between the EAEU countries and Kazakhstan reached a record high of $98 billion, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said during his speech at the plenary session of the Eurasian Economic Forum "Strategy for Eurasian Economic Integration: Results and Prospects", which took place in Minsk, Trend reports.

He noted that this was twice the figure for 2015.

"At the same time, the growth rate of the combined GDP of our countries has been ahead of the world average for the second year in a row. Today, our association continues to strengthen its international authority, becoming an increasingly significant subject of the global economic system. Further development of the EAEU should be built, in our opinion, on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and pragmatism, serving the interests of the economies of our states. Integration in itself does not bring the desired results, since this is the result of joint work to find mutually acceptable compromises," Tokayev said.