Kazakhstan and the US to deepen extensive cooperation
During the meeting they discussed development and prospects of the cooperation between Kazakhstan and the United States in the political, economic and trade areas, as well as implementation of the agreements reached by President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and US President Barack Obama during the Nuclear Security Summit held in the Hague this March, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry's official website reads.
The two diplomats expressed their satisfaction with the cooperation in global security issues, primarily in the field of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The US diplomat expressed his gratitude for the contribution and initiatives of Kazakhstan in this area. In this regard, William Burns emphasized signing of the Protocol on negative guarantees provided by the "P5" states to the member-states of the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone (CANWFZ) on 6 May in New York. Kazakhstan, as a chair of the CANWFZ for two years, had worked to advance this issue, and achieved significant security strengthening in the Central Asian region, and considerably contributed to the global non-proliferation system.
Idrissov and Burns discussed success of such Kazakh-American bilateral mechanisms, as the Commission on Strategic Partnership, Joint Commission on Energy Partnership and the Commission on Scientific and Technological Cooperation.
Trade, economic and business ties have been an important element of the strategic partnership between our countries. Foreign Minister Idrissov mentioned the recently grown interest of the US high-tech companies in joint projects in Kazakhstan. It indicates the growing confidence of foreign investors in Kazakhstan as well as attractiveness of Kazakhstan's investment climate.
The two diplomats touched on progress of harmonizing the Agreement on improving international tax control and implementation of the US Law on tax control of foreign accounts. This document offers new opportunities for effective cooperation and information exchange between financial and tax authorities of the two countries.
They also exchanged their views on the current issues of international policy and regional security policy, including the situation in Ukraine. In particular, they emphasized necessity for all stakeholders to meet commitments reached in Geneva on April 17, and expressed their hope that the parties involved in the conflict will demonstrate their restraint and prevent from further bloodshed.
William Burns expressed his gratitude to Kazakhstan for its contribution to the security and rehabilitation in Afghanistan. He assured that the United States, jointly with its partners, including Kazakhstan will continue, to support sustainable development in Afghanistan on the backdrop of the international coalition withdrawal from the IRA. This will include the procedures agreed during the Istanbul process - a regular meeting last held in Almaty in April 2013.
Erlan Idrissov and William Burns agreed to continue the regular dialogue at all levels and to make additional efforts to strengthen and expand the Kazakhstan-US strategic partnership.