The 25th meeting of the Commission for Cooperation between the Federation Council and the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan took place in the Moscow Region.
The Commission’s co-chairs – First Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Andrey Yatskin and Deputy Speaker of the Kazakhstan Parliament’s Senate Jaqyp Asanov, presided over the meeting. Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov also attended the event.
In his remarks, Andrey Yatskin said that the Commission’s mission consisted of promoting and strengthening ties between the two countries in all areas. “We will be summing up the Commission’s performance in 2023–2025 today and have every reason to assert that members of parliament made a contribution to forging the strong and solid relations Russia and Kazakhstan have reached as this point in time.”
The Russian Senator went on to say that the Commission pays special attention to cooperation in the transport and logistics sector during its meetings, considering the emergence of new opportunities in connection with the fact that the eastern branch of the International North – South Transport Corridor crosses Kazakhstan’s territory.
Andrey Yatskin also talked about the need to expand river navigation. He informed his counterpart that Russian shipyards were ready to build as many river vessels for Kazakhstan as it will need.
“There is a close link between cooperation in the transport sector and efforts to promote tourism. We are interested in fully unlocking the potential of Russia-Kazakhstan cooperation in the tourism industry,” the First Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council pointed out.
The Senator also added that promoting cooperation in education and science was also among the priorities. Every year, there are more people from Kazakhstan enrolled in higher education degree programmes in Russia. In turn, several leading Russian higher education institutions have opened their branches in Kazakhstan.
Andrey Yatskin said that he believed that cooperation in education could facilitate economic development for both countries, promote mutual understanding between their people, and help forge friendly ties between their respective specialists.
“Our inter-parliamentary dialogue covers our agenda in all its aspects and takes place on a permanent, uninterrupted basis,” the Federation Council’s First Deputy Speaker pointed out.
Jaqyp Asanov took the floor to highlight the importance of parliamentarians working together for further strengthening the relations between the two countries. In his remarks, he said that there was a reason for choosing the Moscow Region as the venue for the Commission’s meeting. “As far as we understand, the Moscow Region is more than just a territory. It serves as a powerful economic driver and one of Russia’s leading regions in economics and education. We have been following the Moscow Region’s successful track record with a lot of interest. What we see are extremely sophisticated road interchanges, state-of-the-art industrial parks and the business-friendly environment,” the Deputy Speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan said.
Governor of the Moscow Region Andrey Vorobyov said that the Moscow Region was looking forward to promoting its dialogue with Kazakhstan. “We discussed our experiences in terms of promoting the digital transition with our colleagues from Kazakhstan who shared with us how this process unfolds in their country. We have great solutions for the educational sector. In fact, the Moscow Region is home to some of the best schools, and I would like to suggest to our colleagues to think about connecting them with schools in Kazakhstan, just as we did with the UAE, Uzbekistan and Belarus. This way, talented students who want to study international politics would be able to communicate, get to know and visit each other,” he said.
The participants had an in-depth discussion on the state and future of bilateral inter-parliamentary cooperation, cultural and humanitarian cooperation and joint projects for preserving the historical memory, promoting cooperation in transport and logistics, tourism, as well as science and education.
Participants in the meeting included Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Agriculture and Food Policy and Environmental Management Alexander Dvoinykh, Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Federal Structure, Regional Policy, Local Government and Northern Affairs Andrei Shevchenko, as well as senators of the Russian Federation Andrey Denisov, Yulia Lazutkina, Andrei Yepishin, Natalia Khorova, Alexander Vysokinsky and Oleg Tsepkin, and also Speaker of the Moscow Region Duma Igor Bryntsalov as well as members of parliament from Kazakhstan.