ASTANA – President Nursultan Nazarbayev met with the members of the United States Congress Dana Rohrabacher and Gregory Meeks on Sept. 5 in Borovoye, 250 kilometres north from the Kazakh capital.
During the meeting, the strategic nature of Kazakh-American relations was noted, as well as the dynamic progress of trade and economic cooperation. International issues were also discussed.
The U.S. congressmen expressed hope for further strengthening of the mutually beneficial partnership between the two countries.
At a press briefing following the meeting, Rohrabacher noted that during the visit, members of Congress held a number of important meetings.
“The people of the United States and other countries of the world should realise that Kazakhstan is now a significant player that will largely determine the contours of upcoming developments. In the future, Kazakhstan will have a significant impact on the processes of economic growth and, in this context, we discussed mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries,” Rohrabacher said.
He also noted that the desire of the Kazakh and American people to work together is due to the strategic goal of the United States to be a reliable partner of Kazakhstan.
“With this promise, we will return back to the [United States] House of Representatives and consider further steps to develop our cooperation,” the congressman said.
In turn, Meeks discussed the intention of the American side to visit Kazakhstan together with the representatives of American business again in order to show an example of close and effective cooperation.
Also on Sept. 5, the U.S. congressmen had a meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov. With Idrissov, who spent five years as Kazakhstan’s ambassador in Washington, they discussed the current state and outlook for cooperation between Kazakhstan and the United States in political, economic and trade areas.
The congressmen were accompanied by a delegation of business people, which included representatives of such companies as Newport Convertible Engineering (innovative design and engineering solutions for international auto concerns), Aeroscraft (development and production of innovative modern airships), Oppenheimer Information (implementation of joint projects in the field of science and technology, technology transfer and innovation), General Atomics (development of modular nuclear reactors).
The congressmen discussed the readiness jointly with U.S. businesses to offer shared projects in non-oil sectors of Kazakhstan economy.
The Americans also supported Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO and the economic development strategy of the country. The two sides underlined their cooperation in global security issues, primarily in non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and regional security issues, including the situation in Afghanistan.
Earlier in Almaty, the congressmen had a meeting with members of the American Chamber of Commerce. Also on Sept. 3, they met with Mayor of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yessimov. During that meeting, Yessimov informed the visitors about his plans to visit New York City on Nov. 12 in the framework of the world premiere of the Almaty Symphony Orchestra headed by Marat Bissengaliyev.
Yessimov asked Meeks, who is from New York, for assistance in arranging his meeting with the mayor of New York City to study the experience of the management of urban resources and the establishment of direct links between the business communities of the two cities. The mayor said he was willing to include prominent business people from Almaty into the Kazakh delegation for the November trip.
