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State Duma ratifies “Eurasian” protocol to Treaty of Friendship with Kazakhstan

Тhe Protocol to the political treaty with Kazakhstan would extend its period of validity for another ten years

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, June 14 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian State Duma on Friday ratified a Protocol to the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between Russia and Kazakhstan which is linked to plans to build the Eurasian Economic Union.

Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Compatriots residing abroad, explained that the Protocol to the political treaty with Kazakhstan would extend its period of validity for another ten years and would bring legislations in line with the Eurasian project.

The Big Treaty with Kazakhstan was signed on May 25, 1992 and was already extended once for ten years in 2002.

"After more than 20 years the treaty has fulfilled its main objective. We have managed to bring our stances closer together and elevate our partnership to a strategic level on the basis of the principles of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance that were laid down in the treaty,” Slutsky went on to say. He added that Russia and Kazakhstan were the locomotives of integration processes in the post-Soviet space.

Slutsky said that the ratified ‘Eurasian’ protocol on extending the Treaty of Friendship would be replaced with a new political treaty with Kazakhstan “On Partnership and Allied Partnership in XXI century”. He clarified that several rounds of inter-departmental consultations had already been held on Friday.

The presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan signed the protocol in Astana on June 7, 2012.

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