N. Nazarbayev met with European Council President
ASTANA. April 11. KAZINFORM. Head of the State Nursultan Nazarbayev met with President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy in Brussels yesterday; the President's press service told Kazinform.
The Head of the State congratulated him on the election to the post of European Council President. "European Union is a key trade partner of Kazakhstan in the world. Our trade turnover amounted to USD 28.8 billion last year. The share of the EU in the total trade turnover of our country makes 40 per cent", N. Nazarbayev said.
The European Union is a leading investment partner of Kazakhstan. About USD 56 billion (more than one-third of total foreign capital) in Kazakh economy is the EU states' investments. Kazakhstan invested over USD 10 billion to the economy of the EU states as well.
Kazakhstan is the only country, which adopted the program "Path to Europe" representing an institutional basis for development of technological and innovative cooperation with European states.
Kazakh is interested in the beginning of negotiation on a new agreement on advanced partnership between Kazakhstan and the EU and expects that the European Commission in the near future will receive a mandate for negotiations from all EU countries.
N. Nazarbayev thanked Mr. Rompuy for the invitation to pay official visit to the European Union's Headquarters in October 2010. He expressed confidence that the coming visit to Brussels would open a new page in the relations between Kazakhstan and the EU.
In his turn, President Nazarbayev invited Mr. Rompuy to make official visit to Kazakhstan at any convenient time. The invitation was accepted with gratitude.