ASTANA, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan's lower house of parliament has ratified a Kazakh-Russian agreement on border guard activity that would act as a basis for joint cooperation in fighting the smuggling of arms, ammunition and drugs.
"The agreement is a legal basis for the activity of the two countries' border guards in thwarting and eliminating incidents on the border," the Majlis' committee for international affairs, defense and security said in its decision.
Kazakhstan was the first Caspian state to have reached an agreement with Russia on all disputable sectors of its longest border with Russia, also one of the world's longest.
Now the Senate, the country's upper house of parliament, will have to ratify the agreement, signed in Astana in January 2004.
