Federation Council Speaker summed up the results of the upper house delegation’s official visit to Kazakhstan.
Russia and Kazakhstan have a privileged relationship and a true strategic partnership. The work of both countries’ parliament members should also live up to this level.
Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko said this following an official visit to Kazakhstan made by a delegation from the upper house of the Russian parliament.
During the trip, she met with President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the First President of Kazakhstan, Leader of the Nation Nursultan Nazarbayev, as well as speakers of the Senate and Mazhilis of the Kazakh Parliament Maulen Ashimbayev and Nurlan Nigmatulin.
“During the meeting, the President of Kazakhstan spoke highly of the level of Russian-Kazakh ties and the scale of joint investment projects. He also focused on cooperation in such promising spheres as high technology, innovation, digitalisation, and artificial intelligence,” the Federation Council Speaker said.
She highlighted the confidential and constructive nature of the talks in Nur-Sultan, and the restart of the Commission for Cooperation between the Federation Council and the Senate of the Republic of Kazakhstan after a long hiatus caused by the pandemic, which addresses specific matters on the bilateral agenda.
“Our cooperation is based on our centuries-old friendship between the peoples of the two countries. Over the past years, Russia and Kazakhstan have been purposefully building systemic ties. We believe that the current model of Russian-Kazakh relations meets the national interests of our peoples and has proven its effectiveness,” she said.
She added that the two countries have signed more than 400 treaties and agreements. “We have created a solid legal framework for interstate cooperation based on the recognition of one another’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in each other's internal affairs.”
The pandemic has not interrupted bilateral cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan, the Federation Council Speaker stressed. “Both presidents, governments, relevant ministries and agencies always keep in touch. This indicates a mutual interest in promoting all fields of cooperation and readiness to expand it.”
According to Valentina Matvienko, the two countries maintain a high level of trade and economic cooperation. Mutual trade has grown in the first quarter of this year. “We are confident that, by the end of the year, we will cross the $20 billion mark, as agreed by the Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan.”
The Federation Council Speaker said investment cooperation between the two countries has good prospects when it comes to the implementation of numerous joint projects. “The volume of interaction between our border regions and interregional cooperation is going up. We have good prospects for expanding interaction in innovative and modern industries, including digital technologies and innovative projects, joint space exploration, and goals on the current environmental agenda.”
It is important that our parliaments are playing an increasing role in the implementation of bilateral cooperation programmes, Valentina Matvienko underscored. “This is so because we need to legislatively formalise our interaction and our involvement in the integration processes in the Eurasian space.”
This year, the Republic of Kazakhstan chairs the Eurasian Economic Union, she said while expressing confidence that Kazakhstan, as the initiator of this integration association, will bring a lot of novelties into the EAEU, and barriers to deepening integration in specific spheres will be removed. “The EAEU has become a project that is not only beneficial to all participants, but also attractive for many of our foreign partners who have already concluded cooperation agreements with the union.”
Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Kazakhstan. “We are approaching this milestone with a solid experience of fruitful multifaceted cooperation.”
The parties touched upon the joint coronavirus response efforts and vaccination programmes. The Federation Council Speaker noted as an important signal that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and the first President of Kazakhstan, Leader of the Nation Nursultan Nazarbayev had been vaccinated with Russia’s Sputnik V. Nursultan Nazarbayev had his jab five days ago; according to him, he had no side effects, he feels well and recommends that everyone be vaccinated with Sputnik V, Valentina Matvienko said. “Moreover, the production of Sputnik V has been launched in Kazakhstan, the city of Karaganda.”
The Federation Council Speaker thanked the Kazakh side for their hospitality and the display of friendly feelings. She noted that the visit to Kazakhstan was Russian senators’ first foreign trip due to the pandemic situation.
The Federation Council delegation led by Valentina Matvienko is on an official visit to Kazakhstan from 27 to 28 June.
The delegation includes First Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council, Russian Co-Chair of the Commission on Cooperation between the Federation Council and the Senate of the Republic of Kazakhstan Andrei Yatskin; Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev; Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Defence and Security Viktor Bondarev; Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin; First Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Federal Structure, Regional Policy, Local Government and Northern Affairs Andrei Shevchenko; and member of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Oleg Tsepkin.