Kazakhstan and Russia: Century-long friendship
The prospects of trade-economic and investment interaction including implementation of large-scale projects in energy, transport, space exploration and industrial cooperation sectors will be discussed at the high-level talks. The parties are also expected to share views on the most urgent issues of cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union. In addition, V.Putin and N.Nazarbayev will discuss the key problems of regional and international agenda. A number of bilateral documents will be signed following the visit. On October 16, V.Putin will attend the session of the CIS Heads of State Council to be chaired by Kazakhstan and the session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Burabay. The visit proves again high intensive political contacts between the countries. Friendly and trustful relations between N.Nazarbayev and V.Putin attach dynamic character to further strengthening of the Kazakhstan-Russia strategic and allied partnership. As per statistics, in H1 2015 commodity turnover between Kazakhstan and Russia made 7 bln 500 mln U.S. dollars, including export - 2 bln 300 mln U.S. dollars and import - 5 bln 200 mln U.S. dollars. As Vladimir Putin noted delivering a speech at the 12th Kazakhstan-Russia Interregional Cooperation Forum in Sochi (there no other similar dialogue platform either in the CIS and the entire world), tough economic situation and currency fluctuations had not affected the bilateral commodity turnover. According to the Russian Leader, the volume of commodity turnover rose by 3.2%. Bilateral ties are also enlarged and diversified thanks to growing cooperation between the regions. Beginning from 2003, when the First Interregional Forum was opened, mutual trade between Moscow and Astana increased six-fold and reached 21 bln U.S. dollars in 2014. 5,590 Kazakh-Russian joint enterprises are functioning across Kazakhstan to date. 76 out of 89 subjects of the Russian Federation have established cooperation with Kazakhstani partners. These are Atyrau, West Kazakhstan, Aktobe, Kostanay, North Kazakhstan, Pavlodar and East Kazakhstan regions. Commodity turnover between 7 near-border regions and the Russian Federation in January - June 2015 made 2 bln 700 mln U.S. dollars. Russia's Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Tyumen, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions are actively developing trade-economic ties with Kazakhstan. Along with trade-economic and investment spheres, the cooperation between the two countries covers a wide spectrum of issues, from cultural-humanitarian to military-technical aspects. Kazakhstan and Russia interact also as member countries of the CIS, EEU, CSTO, SCO, CICA and other organizations. Scientific-educational cooperation and humanitarian interaction are expanded too. More than 20,000 young Kazakhstanis are studying at the universities of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and other cities of Russia. Russian youth from the cross-border regions has an opportunity to get higher education at Kazakhstani institutions. The countries enjoy mutually open information space. The Russian side has always backed Kazakhstan's propositions on perpetuation of the memory of outstanding people of the Kazakh nation, whose activity was closely connected with Russia and its regions. In turn, Kazakhstan shows respect to many Russian scholars, writers, workers of culture and art who left their mark in development of our country in previous epochs. The Constitution and the legislation of Kazakhstan guarantees free use of Russian on a par with the state Kazakh language. All mentioned points are a great result and simultaneously a firm base for further development of friendship, good-neighborhood and allied relations of the two countries in XXI century. N.Nazarbayev paid his first official visit to Russia in March 1994. This visit laid the foundation for expanding interaction in trade-economic, scientific-technical and humanitarian sectors. Namely at that time he delivered a lecture at the Moscow State Lomonossov University where he initiated to the establish the Eurasian Union. The visit allowed to negotiate the conditions of using Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Declaration of Eternal Friendship and Alliance signed in 1998 has a special importance in the Kazakh-Russian relations. In 2000, after election of Vladimir Putin as the Russian President, the relations between the two countries rose to a brand new level. The Year of Kazakhstan in Russia and The Year of Russia in Kazakhstan were successfully held in both states. In January 2005 the countries signed a historical document on demarcation of the state border with the length of 7,591 km. Delivering a speech at the Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs, Nazarbayev said: "I have always been asked what bilateral relations I would like our countries to have. I want to answer this question citing John Kennedy who said the following about the U.S. and Canada: "Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies." So, I would like Kazakhstan and Russia to enjoy the same relations, as the U.S. and Canada do." In general, interaction with Russia has been the main area of Kazakhstan's foreign policy. We have been building stable and predictable relations since the Soviet Union collapse. And, as the Kazakh Leader noted, these relations demonstrate the most successful and the most effective model of bilateral cooperation in the entire post-Soviet space.
