Kazak president to visit Baku

By Azernews

By Gunay Hasanova

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev will visit Azerbaijan, Serbia, Armenia and a number of other countries in 2016.

Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov announced about this at a briefing on August 17, RIA Novosti reported.

In June, Idrissov said Nazarbayev will visit Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Jordan in 2016, while the president plans to visit Kyrgyzstan in September 2016.

“The president's international program is very busy,” Idrissov said. “We will go to Poland, Serbia this autumn, and we have been also invited to the G 20 Hangzhou Summit in China to be held early September 2016. Our president will also visit Japan, South Korea, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.”

Kazakh expert Adil Kaukenov previously told Day.Az that the future perspectives of cooperation in the Caspian Sea region will be on the agenda of the Baku talks within the Kazakh leader’s upcoming visit.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are also expected to discuss prospects of different logistics and transportation projects, particularly, the Aktau port modernization and intensification of the route Aktau-Baku, which in turn promises significant mutual benefits.

Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan Republic were established on August 27, 1992.

Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs are both Turkic-speaking nations and share close historical, religious, and cultural ties. Both are the littoral states of the Caspian Sea and possess a common maritime border. Kazakhstan is home to more than 130,000 Azerbaijanis.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan totaled $76.9 million in January-September 2015, or 2.5 times less than in the same period of 2014, according to Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee.