K.Saudabayev and H.Clinton confirm mutual intention to strengthen strategic cooperation

ASTANA. January 26. KAZINFORM Kazakh Secretary of State - Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev held talks with U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton on the second day of his visit to the USA, the press service of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry reported.

The parties expressed satisfaction with the dynamic development of the bilateral relations and emphasized the importance of timely realization of the agreements achieved during the talks of Presidents N.Nazarbayev and B.Obama held within the Global Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.

K.Saudabayev and H.Clinton confirmed strong interest of both states in further strengthening of the strategic partnership. The U.S. State Secretary expressed gratitude to Kazakhstan for the leadership in strengthening the global non-proliferation regime, regional security provision, especially for practical participation of Astana in the international efforts on social-economic rehabilitation of Afghanistan.

In the field of economic cooperation the interlocutors complimented the progress in the bilateral negotiations on Kazakhstan's WTO accession.

Cooperation in science and technologies is one of the top-priority directions of cooperation due to opening of the Nazarbayev University in Astana. Practical issues of such cooperation will be addressed within the upcoming visits of the USA State Department's officials to Kazakhstan.

Besides, H.Clinton highly appraised the efforts of the Kazakh Government on combating human trafficking and expressed readiness of the USA Administration to activate interaction in this sphere.

At the end of the meeting K.Saudabayev confirmed the invitation of the Kazakh President to Barack Obama to pay official visit to Kazakhstan. Besides, by the Decree of the Kazakh President the Kazakh Minister awarded H.Clinton "Dostyk" Order of the first degree for contribution to strengthening bilateral cooperation and friendship between the two states.

In light of the upcoming Kazakhstan's OIC presidency K.Saudabayev met with U.S. President's Special Envoy to the OIC Rashad Hussain. The interlocutors discussed the current state of "Islamic World - West" dialogue and prospects for sides' interaction.

Later in the day the Kazakh Minister also met with President of the Eisenhower Group Inc Susan Eisenhower, heads of ConocoPhillips Company James Mulva and Heliburton Company David J. Lesar.