The Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan, Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev, on Friday agreed to cooperate closely to attract tourists from China and India to their respective countries.

"It is important to take advantage of our geographical proximity to China and India, countries that show high rates of growth in tourism," said Nazarbayev during a meeting with the Kremlin chief in the Kazakh city of Petropavlovsk, reports Efe news.

The Kazakh leader proposed to promote joint projects for the development of tourism in the Caspian Sea, which borders both countries, in addition to promoting space tourism.

The Russian leader, who arrived in the Central Asian country to attend the regional cooperation forum between Russia and Kazakhstan, agreed with his Kazakh counterpart on the need to give a boost to the development of tourism.

Putin proposed to create new tourist routes between the two countries that would popularize "the historical-cultural values, traditions and customs" of the peoples of Russia and Kazakhstan.

"Nowhere else in the world can you find as much landscape diversity as in Russia and Kazakhstan," Putin said.

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