Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev met with the visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Astana on Thursday.
During the meeting, the two sides stressed the need for the development of mutual relations, and further exchanged views about the topics to be covered during the upcoming visit to Iran by the Kazakh President.
Noting the decisiveness of the two countries’ officials for the expansion of mutual ties, Mottaki said that during his meetings with Kazakh officials, the two sides have discussed the results of the previous meetings between the two presidents.
He also said that the Iranian president is determined to expand all-out ties with Kazakhstan, and mentioned that the exchange of views by the two presidents during their meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai summit has given further impetus to Iran-Kazakhstan relations and provided the two countries with abundant potentials for further cooperation in areas of economy, trade, industry, investment, technical and engineering services, road construction, banking affairs, energy, swap of wheat and oil via Iran to the Persian Gulf region and north Africa.
Mottaki pointed out that the outcomes of the eighth meeting of Iran-Kazakhstan Joint Economic Cooperation Commission serves as a proper ground for the promotion of bilateral ties during the upcoming visit to Iran by the Kazakh president.
“Strength and progress of Kazakhstan is very important to us” he reiterated, adding that consolidation of relations and bonds between the two neighbors in light of cultural and social commonalities would guarantee progress and development of the two countries.
Elsewhere, the top diplomat noted the ongoing consultations among expert groups, to be followed by a meeting of the foreign ministers of the five Caspian Sea littoral states, and underlined that the said ministerial meeting would play a crucially important and strategic role in the final draft of the Caspian Sea condominium for discussion in the Tehran summit.
For his part, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev stressed the importance of the existing cordial and mutual ties between the two states.
He further voiced his country’s enthusiasm for expanding commercial relations with Iran through the Caspian Sea and Mashhad-Sarakhs route.
Nazarbayev also pointed to the swap of oil via Iran and transit of goods from Kazakhstan’s Aqtau port to the Persian Gulf via Iranian territory as well as use of North-South corridor and export of Iranian goods to other parts of the world via Kazakhstan as proper grounds for the two countries’ cooperation.
He viewed the Caspian Sea summit in Tehran as a significant event, and stressing that regional cooperation should be upgraded, he stated that Tehran and Astana would soon play a graver role in this regard.
The Kazakh president expressed his support for the joint construction of a refinery in northern Iran and a petrochemical facility in Kazakhstan, and expressed the hope that his visit to Iran in 2007 would yield more positive results for the development of two states’ mutual relations.
