Kazakhstan decides to terminate 'invention secrecy' agreement

In a statement from the Kazakh Presidency, it was reported that President Tokayev signed the law providing for the termination of the agreement on the mutual security of interstate secrets in the field of legal protection of inventions, dated June 4, 1999.

The agreement in question, which aimed to ensure the confidentiality of information regarding important inventions from the USSR era and to determine the procedure for declassification, was signed by the heads of government of the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), consisting of former Soviet countries, on June 4, 1999, in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Kazakh Minister of Justice Azamat Yeskarayev, in his statement on the subject in Parliament, pointed out that the agreement, which had been in effect for 20 years, was no longer current, stating, "Throughout the entire validity period of the agreement, not a single case was recorded in CIS member countries regarding the issuance of documents for secret inventions created in the USSR or the lifting of their confidentiality."

News Source: AA