Kazakhstan Foreign Minister and President of Afghanistan met in Kabul

Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov and President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai have met in Kabul, Tengrinews.kz reports. During the visit the head of Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry held bilateral meetings with President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, Parliament speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, Afghanistan Foreign Minister Dr. Zalmai Rassoul and other officials. Passing his best wishes to Nursultan Nazarbayev, President Hamid Karzai stressed the leadership and the important role of Kazakhstan in the region and its stable and progressive economic development. He expressed hope that Astana will play a significant role in regulation of the situation in Afghanistan. Besides, Hamid Karzai supported the opinion on the necessity of further development and enhancement of mutually beneficial relations between fraternal states. Foreign Ministers in the meeting exchanged their opinions on key international issues, problems of the regional security, as well as development of the situation in Central and South Asia and Afghanistan, in particular, in relation with the coming withdrawal of the international security forces by the end of 2014. The parties also discussed main directions for development of Kazakhstan-Afghanistan relations and prospects of further trade, economic and investment cooperation, in particular in joint implementation of projects in railroad transport, minerals production, agriculture, emergency situations management, telecommunications and energy. The visit ended in signing of a Memorandum between Foreign Ministries of Kazakhstan and Afghanistan. Kazakhstan delegation held a range of bilateral meetings with representatives of the engaged ministries and authorities of Afghanistan to discuss performance of the agreements reached by Kazakhstan-Afghanistan Inter-government Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. On June 14, 2012, Kazakhstan Foreign Minister will take part in the conference of Foreign Ministers of the member-countries of Heart of Asia Istanbul Process. On June 13 Kazakhstan Majilis ratified a protocol on amendments to the Agreements between the governments of Kazakhstan and Afghanistan on cooperation in education. In particular, the documents provides for education of 1,000 Afghan students in Kazakhstan universities.