President Nazarbayev meets Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has met Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing the President’s website. The sides dwelt on bilateral trade and economic, technical, and investments cooperation. They pointed to prospects for furthering the interaction, including between companies of the two nations. President Nazarbayev emphasized that Kazakhstan is interested in deepening its ties with Japan. “I’ve been to Japan twice. Kazakhstan welcomes your idea to strengthen cooperation with Central Asia. Japan is one of the major economies in the world (…) the relations between our countries have been galvanized recently, we are ready to cooperate on a wide range of directions. One of the major spheres for cooperation is nuclear power industry. As a leading uranium producer, Kazakhstan could supply the raw material to feed Japan-based nuclear power plants”, President said. Besides, President Nazarbayev emphasized the work of the JV to produce rare earth metals in Akmolinsk oblast. He said it was possible to further technology cooperation between the two nations within Kazakhstan’s Industrial Program. Japan’s PM expressed his satisfaction with the bilateral talks, first following the last year’s G20 summit held in Russia’s St. Petersburg. “Your visit to Japan back in 2008 gave an impetus to strengthen the economic ties that have reached the level of strategic cooperation since that time. I would want to express respect for and appreciation of Kazakhstan’s contribution to the efforts to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan. We count on Kazakhstan’s assistance to build a dialogue between Japan and Central Asia nations”, he said.