ASTANA. KazUnite – President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev held a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in Astana on an official visit.
Welcoming the U.S. top diplomat, the Head of State noted that since the establishment of diplomatic relations, Kazakhstan and the United States have built exemplary cooperation both in bilateral and multilateral formats.
“Your visit is extremely important in terms of giving additional impetus to our strategic cooperation. We have built a very good and reliable long-term partnerships in so many strategically important areas like security, energy, trade, and investment. So we are ready to have a follow up on this cooperation. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express our appreciation for the continuous and firm support of the United States for our independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the Head of State said.
In relation economic cooperation, President Tokayev underscored that the United States is one of Kazakhstan’s largest investors, with a total investment of over 62 billion dollars.
The Kazakh leader welcomed the United States’ efforts to enhance cooperation within the C5+1 format, noting the importance of the meeting between the heads of foreign ministers of Central Asia and the U.S. in Astana.
In turn, the U.S. Secretary of State thanked Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for his hospitality and conveyed warm greetings from the U.S. President Joe Biden.
“It is important, of course, on a bilateral level, to build on the remarkable work that has been done now over more than 30 years, to deepen and strengthen our partnership. And I think just in the last couple of years, we have made further important strides in that direction. The relationship is strong, it will only get stronger. We are committed to that. At the same time, we are grateful to you, to your team for bringing together Central Asian partners here in Astana today. And so I look forward to working with our fellow foreign ministers to really engage – in even an ever more practical work in bringing the region together creating greater connections, connectivity and focusing on practical things that we can do to strengthen that work. And I think it will be to the benefit of people living throughout Central Asia, but also to the United States. We are committed to that engagement at the highest levels, and I am just so pleased to be here to advance even further the cooperation that we have,” Antony Blinken said.
In addition, the U.S. Secretary of State praised the political and economic reforms in Kazakhstan.
Concluding the meeting, President Tokayev conveyed his best wishes to President Biden.
