Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has signed a law on ratification of the agreement between the governments of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan on reciprocal granting of land plots for the construction of diplomatic missions' buildings, the president's press-service said on Friday.

According to the agreement, Kazakhstan will provide Azerbaijan with 0.5 hectares of land in the Kazakh capital city of Astana for 49 years with one tenge ($0.0067) rental payment a year.

Azerbaijan in turn will give the Kazakh side a territory of the same size and for the same period in Baku with one manat ($1.2755) annual lease payment.

Construction of the diplomatic missions' buildings on the parity basis is exempt from all state taxes, fees and duties, except lease of property.

All the expenses on construction work, including mapping and maintenance, will be paid by the sides themselves in accordance with the host country's tariffs.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, both Turkic-speaking countries, have close religious, cultural ties, and similar history, having been part of great empires for centuries until the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, which led to the independence of both countries.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan established diplomatic relations in August 1992, with Kazakhstan opening an embassy in Baku in 1993 and Azerbaijan opening an embassy in Astana in 2004.

Numerous high-level visits in 1996-1997 laid the foundation for a rapid growth of bilateral cooperation. These bilateral ties have set the stage for cooperation in a variety of multilateral forums, with Kazakhstan consistently supporting Azerbaijan on the resolution of the South Caucasus republic's bitter dispute with Armenia.

The two countries also share interests in determining the Caspian Sea's legal status and promoting oil and gas transportation routes traversing the resource-rich basin.

They have expanded their ties through direct air links between Baku and Astana and establishment of Azerbaijani Consulate General in Aktau -- in the location where the Baku-Aktau shipping corridor ends.