The Kazak parliament ratified an agreement on border delimitation with Russia on Wednesday.

The pact is the first legal document between the two countries demarcating their common border, said Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev in a speech to parliament.

The signing of the agreement was important to the development of bilateral relations, said Tokayev.
 
According to the accord, which was signed by the presidents of the two countries in Moscow in January, border delimitation between the two countries would be based on the common border of the former Soviet Union's two republics -- the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic and the Kazakhskaya Soviet Socialist Republic.

The two sides also agreed to further work out agreements on the division of mineral resources, municipal infrastructures and engineering projects, which are scattered along the borders, as well as on the use and protection of ecological resources at border areas.

Tokayev said Kazakhstan and Russia were to set up a joint team to carry out border delimitation in line with the agreement.

With the signing of the pact, he said, land border demarcation between Kazakhstan and all its neighboring countries as well as Russia now has the legal basis.

Kazakhstan, which declared independence in December 1991 after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, had signed border agreements with all of its other neighbors -- Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Also on Wednesday, the Russian parliament approved the same agreement.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2005)