Kyrgyzstan is looking towards Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan’s Customs Union, the country's prime minister, Almazbek Atambayev, announced on Friday.

“Kyrgyzstan and Russia have a common past, and I think our future will also be shared. We see Kyrgyzstan in the Customs Union and in the common economic space,” Atambayev told the head of the Russian presidential administration, Sergei Naryshkin, during a meeting in Moscow, RIA Novosti reported.

“Once we were parts of the same great country, and no one is preventing us from being part of the common economic space and the Customs Union,” he said.

The Customs Union between the three ex-Soviet neighbors became fully operational in early July, when the countries ratified the Customs Code. The states plan to scrap their customs borders on July 1, 2011.