Ambassadors of six countries presented credentials to Nazarbayev

Ambassadors of six countries have presented their credentials to Nursultan Nazarbayev, Tengrinews.kz reports. Ambassador of Norway Ole Johan Bjornoy, Ambassador of Egypt Nabila Ibrahim Salama Farhana, Ambassador of Uzbekistan Alisher Salakhitdinov, Ambassador of Israel Eli Tasman, Ambassador of Indonesia Foster Gultom and Ambassador of Serbia Vladimir Mirkovic officially assumed their offices. “Your Excellencies, I congratulate you on the beginning of your diplomatic missions in Kazakhstan. I wish you success in interstate development. Welcome to the blessed land of Kazakhstan and to the capital Astana,” Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said. In their speeches all six diplomats congratulated Kazakhstan on winning the bid to host EXPO-2017. Speaking of bilateral cooperation with Norway, Nursultan Nazarbayev noted that Kazakhstan received $166 billion of direct investments over the 20 years of independence. “Kazakhstan is interested in further development and expansion of cooperation with Norway. We view Norway as a major and significant trade and economic partner among Scandinavian countries. This March the diplomatic mission in Oslo started operating as an embassy. We hope that this step will boost our bilateral relations,” Kazakhstan President said. Speaking of Egypt, Nursultan Nazarbayev called development of cooperation and close relations with Middle East and North African countries one of the main vectors of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy. “We are interested in enhancing relations with our partner Egypt and its new leadership. We highly appreciate our bilateral relations with Egypt. I would like to express gratitude to Egypt for its contribution and active participation in the CICA (Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia) and the Congress of World Religions,” President said. The incumbent ambassador of Egypt Nabila Ibrahim Salama Farhana invited Nursultan Nazarbayev to visit her country. “We are expecting Mister President in Egypt for the opening of Beibars mosque and participation in the Forum of Islamic Countries,” she said after the credentials awarding ceremony. Kazakhstan President characterized the country's relations with Israel as friendly and fully complying with mutual interests of the two states. “We are very concerned about the situation in this region and hope that it will quickly stabilize and is resolved peacefully,” Nazarbayev stressed. Kazakhstan President emphasized the country's cooperation with Indonesia. “The bilateral relations with Indonesia are developing continuously, especially in the framework of the Islamic Organization for Cooperation. Indonesia is an active leader. Kazakhstan hopes for Indonesia’s support in Kazakhstan’s intention to become a member of the security forum of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations)," he said. President also stressed friendly and good neighborly partnership with Uzbekistan and noted that the recent visit of President Islam Karimov to Kazakhstan was very successful. Besides, Nursultan Nazarbayev talked about productive relations with Serbia.