Kazakhstan and China to sign agreement on 24 transborder rivers

Kazakhstan and China intend to sign an agreement on 24 transborder rivers, Tengrinews reports, citing Yerlan Idrissov, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister, as saying December 19. “This year the Foreign Ministry in partnership with the Environment Ministry has launched an expert board to study joint use of transborder rivers. This expert body is supposed to work out specific recommendations to defend Kazakhstan’s interests in this realm. In the nearest time Astana and Beijing are to sign an agreement on 24 transboder rivers”, Mr. Idrissov said. According to him, since 2001 a total of 10 sittings of the Kazakh-Chinese Committee for Joint Use of Transborder Rivers have been held, resulting in 7 bilateral agreements. The Minister also said the two nations would get down to checking the frontier line late 2014. “The delimitation and demarcation of the border are complete; late 2014 the two sides will start checking the current state of the frontier line. Field works to place border signs have been complete along the borders on the neighboring Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The junction point of the border lines of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan is yet to be complete”, the Minister said. He also informed that the works are still under way to demarcate Kazakhstan’s longest on-ground border on Russia. “The pace of the works is high; however, the border is quite lengthy and the demarcation takes a long time. Hopefully, the works will be complete in two years’ time.”