Nazarbayev signs law on Good-Neighborliness and Alliance in 21st century

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has signed the Law On Ratification of the Agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan on good-neighborliness and alliance in the XXI century, Tengrinews reports citing the press service of Akorda.

The agreement is one of the fundamental documents that envisages the main principles of cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia. It aims to further strengthen the mutually beneficial and strategic cooperation in politics, trade and economy, energy and transport, investment, science and technology, healthcare and culture between the countries.

Under the Agreement, Russia and Kazakhstan will coordinate their foreign policies, closely cooperate in strengthening peace, enhancing stability and security in the Eurasian region and throughout the world. The sides will also step up their cooperation in combating terrorism, various forms of transnational organized crime, corruption, drug trafficking, arms trafficking and smuggling, including smuggling of cultural treasures, and illegal immigration. Russia and Kazakhstan will also collaborate in ensuring information security.

The document is expected to facilitate the establishment of contacts between the parliaments, political parties and NGOs of the two countries.

Within the frameworks of the agreement, Kazakhstan and Russia will develop their bilateral ties based on mutual trust as equal and sovereign states, affirming and respecting the territorial integrity and inviolability of the existing borders.

Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the agreement itself during the 10th Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum on November 11, 2013 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. “’We have lived by the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance since 1992. Now were have new conditions. It (the treaty) has been updated, adjusted to the new conditions, and adopted in the form of the new agreement. It is very important and fundamental for our work,” President Nazarbayev said during the signing of the treaty in Yekaterinburg.

“We are neighbors. The saying goes that neighbors are not chosen, they are God given. As our ancestors lived, so we also shall live, and so shall our descendants live,” President Nazarbayev said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law ratifying the agreement on June 30, 2014.

By Assel Satubaldina