Russia-Kazakhstan treaty on good neighborly relations to take effect soon — Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hopes that Russian-Kazakh treaty on good neighborly and allied relations in the 21st century will take effect soon. The Russian foreign minister has made a statement in the Russian capital on Thursday, opening talks with visiting Kazakh counterpart Yerlan Idrisov.

“Our relations keep on broadening, the presidents of the two countries met six times, and meetings at the level of foreign ministers are quite intensive,” Lavrov said, recalling that leaders of the two countries Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev had talks in Moscow on March 5 on Eurasian integration.

“We would like to confirm our firm intention to promote all agreements on the Customs Union (Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus), creation of a Eurasian Cconomic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), combining this with interaction of our countries in the United Nations Organization and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and all structures in which we participate,” the Russian top diplomat added.

“We have submitted the bilateral treaty on good neighborly and allied relations in the 21st century for ratification to the Russian president. I hope that our countries will finalize all procedures, and the document will come into force,” the Russian minister stated. “I am confident that talks will be useful to advance tasks set by the presidents,” Lavrov added.

For his part, Idrisov noted that the ministers met on Thursday to sum up results of work for the previous year. In his words, all events were fulfilled. “We will remember the previous year for sustainable development of bilateral relations in political, trade and economic spheres,” the Kazakh foreign minister said, adding that “the signing of the bilateral treaty on good neighborly and allied relations in the 21st century is a new stage in relations that will determine dialogue for the future."