RF upper parliament house speaker praises RF-Kazakhstan relations.

8/12 Tass 118

ASTANA, December 8 (Itar-Tass) -- Speaker of the Federation Council,
or upper house of the Russian parliament, Sergei Mironov has described
relations between Russia and Kazakhstan as unprecedented positive.
"The level of bilateral relations, including contacts between the
leaders of Kazakhstan and Russia, have no precedents in terms of intensity
and positiveness," he said on Wednesday at a meeting with his Kazakh
counterpart, senate speaker Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev.
Mironov recalled that the presidents of the two countries had 11
meetings during the current year. In his words, these were not mere
protocolary meetings, "each of them entailed new positives resolutions."
The fact that "already now we are living within the Customs Union" is
a vivid example of the friendly nature of bilateral relations, he noted.
Tokayev, in his turn, said that Kazakhstan and Russia were interested
in further development of relations of trust and strategic partnership.
The two speakers discussed the entire range of issues of bilateral
relations, as well as ties between the upper houses of the two parliaments.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, Mironov called the recent
OSCE summit's Astana declaration "a pinnacle of success" and praised
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev for his contribution to it.
Mironov is heading a Russian delegation, which has arrived to the
Kazakh capital to discuss parliament-related issues of the Customs Union.
The delegation will attend the fourth meeting of the parliamentary group.
Mironov is also scheduled to meet with Kazakhstan's President Nursultan
Nazarbayev, Prime Minister Karim Masimov, and to address the upper house
of the Kazakh parliament and deliver a s peach at the Academy of State
Administration.
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