Kazakh president expresses readiness to advance interaction, cooperation with Malaysia

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev expressed his country's readiness to advance interaction and cooperation with Malaysia during a visit by the country's prime minister to the capital Astana on Thursday.

"Kazakhstan and Malaysia have longstanding ties of friendship and mutual cooperation...We are ready to make additional efforts to advance our interaction and cooperation in many important areas," Tokayev said during narrow-format talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, according to a statement by the Kazakh presidency.

Stressing that he believes Anwar’s visit will give a powerful impetus to the further development of relations between Kazakhstan and Malaysia, Tokayev said a solid foundation of mutually beneficial cooperation has formed over the past 30 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Tokayev further said that he believes this is becoming increasingly significant, "taking into account modern geopolitical and economic realities."

In an expanded meeting later in the day, he said the most important factor in the development of Kazakh-Malaysian relations is business contacts, in regards to which they welcomed the implementation of new successful projects with the participation of Malaysian companies and conveyed his government's readiness to provide the necessary assistance.

Anwar noted that Malaysia attaches special importance to strengthening trade and economic cooperation with Kazakhstan, saying they can "make the most of growing economic relations."

"We have specific proposals. We plan to hold bilateral meetings with your ministers on import and export issues. We have created a huge commodity market in Malaysia. Now our country has turned into a regional hub for the production of computer chips, with significant investments from the US, Europe, especially Germany, and China. I think we can share this experience and at the same time learn from your experience in the transformation that you carried out quite successfully," he added.