Kazakh Foreign Minister, USA Special Rep for Afghanistan and Pakistan met in Astana

The current state and prospects of development of cooperation between Kazakhstan and the USA in bilateral and multilateral aspects were discussed at the meeting.

The Kazakh Minister briefed the American Diplomat on the priorities of Astana at the OSCE chairman post including on of the top priorities - stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan.

K.Saudabayev expressed support to the efforts of the U.S. Administration in this field stressing the importance of paying more attention to the humanitarian component of the efforts. In this context, the contribution of Kazakhstan, in particular, the signing of the Kazakh-Afghan agreement on allocating of USD 50 mln by the country for education of one thousand Afghani students was stressed.

The interlocutors also discussed the agenda of the meeting of Presidents of the two countries N.Nazarbayev and B.Obama scheduled for April in Washington. As earlier reported, the visit of the Head of the State to America for participation in the Global Summit on Nuclear Security is planned in April.

Besides, the parties exchanged views on holding the OSCE Summit in 2010 in Kazakhstan. The sides noted that the Afghan problems could be one of the main topics at the Summit.