(ASTANA( By Riaz A Malik): Pakistan and Kazakhstan enjoy cordial relations which will continue to strengthen with the passage of time. Pakistan has always supported Kazakhstan for which we are grateful to it.
This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan H.E. Roman Vassilenko while answering questions of foreign media personnel here in Astana on Monday.
Quoting the examples of close relationship between the two brotherly countries, the Minister said that Pakistan Prime Minister himself attended the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia ( CICA ) in Astana last October. Pakistan is now also a full-fledged member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The Kazakh Minister went on to say that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met twice with Pakistan Prime Minister( the then) Shahbaz Sharif last year not just here in Astana but on international arena also. Moreover, Speaker of the Parliament of Kazakhstan also visited Islamabad last September.
He expressed the hope that that frequency of contacts will continue adding that there are also several other important instruments to strengthen this cooperation such as Inter-governmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. There are political consultations, which took place recently in June. In July direct flights were launched between Almaty and Lahore, which are the crystal clear examples that this relationship is developing.
To a question, the Minister said that like Kazakhstan and Pakistan, many other countries in the region are also interested in a stable Afghanistan which will be beneficial for land based transportation between Central Asia and Pakistan but unfortunately for many decades this had not been possible.
Kazakhstan is engaged in economic cooperation with the sitting Administration in Kabul and providing humanitarian assistance to Afghans on regular basis after the most tragic earthquake, he added. Similarly, Kazakhstan also provided humanitarian assistance to Pakistan following the devastating floods last year. In a nutshell Kazakhstan wants to have stronger ties with Pakistan, both have to work together to help develop a stable Afghanistan which in turn will open much more opportunities for our land based trade and economic cooperation.
